Legal History-Administration in Calcutta before 1726


All right, legal administration in Kolkata all started with above building. Brief story goes like this. Englishmen arrived in Kolkata in 1690 under the leadership of Job Charnock at Sutanati, place on the bank of river Hoogly. They constructed fortified factory named Fort William.

Initially, they secured Zamindari rights of three villages named Calcutta, Sutanati and Govindpur. Grandson of Aurangzeb was Subedar of Bengal, and Aurangazeb was still ruling from Delhi. Nawab of Murshidabad had considerable power during those time.

Mughal granted company the rights to administer their settlement. Slowly slowly Company started ruling nearby areas. They started to administer the justice under their zamindari. And they introduced India to the post of collector..!!

Collector the superman

In 1699, Calcutta became the presidency town. In 1700 they introduce the officer named as collector.

Collector was like superman in those days too, because of below reason


  • He was member of Governor and Council
  • He used to decide civil cases in a summary manner. Summary manner mean super fast without procedure with due diligence.
  • He have to collect the revenues for peasants and farmer and other earning folks
  • He used to impose fine as well like whipping, fine,imprisonment etc.
  • He have to take cognisance of crimes as well
  • In case death penalty is imposed, it has to be confirmed by Governor and Council, and if area is outside of company's jurisdiction, then confirmation has to be taken from Nawab of Murshidabad.



Parallel Administration

 Some towns were under jurisdiction of British, whereas some not. In these town, villages there was Zamindari Court.

Also there were Kazi's court deciding Civil and Criminal Cases. Kazi's court was present in Each District (Sarkar), Parganah, City and even in large villages. Generally, people were satisfied with this particular system. There was also proper hierarchy, meaning village panchayat's decision could be challenged in Kazi's court of District, then District court decision could be challenged in Subaa.

At some places these courts were corrupt too, which used to exercise the power in arbitrary manner.

Summary

 In short, whole system was executive oriented. Collector was member of executive and decide to do all judicial administration.
Collector was overpowered and overburdened. Can really a same person collect revenue, maintain law and order, decide civil cases, decide criminal cases, eat foot, run a family and sleep possible ?

Neither the Mughal administration was effective.

Neverthless this system continued till 1726, when Charter of 1726 introduced some changes.



Thanks.
Legalfundaa

(Please point out any inadvertent inaccuracies in above article in comments)

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