British period judicial system (series1)

Though the East India Company had established important trading settlement at Bombay, Madras and Calcutta, during the 17^th century they remained mainly merchants and factory owners who held their possessions by permission of and in obedience to the Mughal emperor (except in the Island of Bombay where they were fully sovereign as it had been ceded to them as dowry). However, from the beginning, English residents in these settlements remained subject to their own laws which were administered by their own officers. The first charter of 1601, granted by Queen Elizabeth, conferred upon the company not only the power to make reasonable laws but also the authority to execute and administer them and impose pains and penalties for disobedience. In 1618 Sir Thomas Roe, James I's ambassador to the Mughal court in India formally secured from the Mughal emperor, with regard to the factory at Surat, privilege of allowing the English residents to refer their disputes for adjudication to their own officers. Charles II's Charter of 1661 empowered the Governor and Council of each factory " to judge all persons belonging to the said Governor and Company or that should live under them in all causes, whether civil or criminal, according to the laws of the kingdom, and to execute judgement accordingly."

The Charter of 1683 gave the Company full power to make peace and war, and also provided for establishing a Court of Judicature to be held at such place or places as the Company might direct. In 1726 the Crown by Letters Patent established Mayor's courts on the English pattern at Madras, Bombay and Fort William (Calcutta), each consisting of a Mayor and nine Aldermen who had the power to hear all civil suits, actions and pleas between party and party. These were declared to be courts of Record from whose decisions an appeal lay to the Governor and Council in important cases a further appeal to the Privy Council in the United Kingdom. The Governor and five seniors of the Council were required to hold quarterly sessions for the trial of all kinds of offences other than treason. In 1753 by Letters Patent, Courts of Request (the predecessors of small causes courts) were established at each of the three presidency towns for the determination of suits in which the amount involved did not exceed Rs 20. Their jurisdiction was restricted only to the Europeans in express terms suits between Indians were not to be determined by the Mayor's courts unless by the consent of the parties. This was a self-imposed limitation which showed an intention on the part of the British Crown not to claim rights to territorial sovereignty over any portion of India.

The year 1765 marked the commencement of the East India Company's territorial sovereignty. Clive succeeded in obtaining from Emperor Shah Alam the grant of the Diwani or fiscal administration of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. The Nizamat or criminal jurisdiction continued to remain with the Nawab at Murshidabad while the Company was to collect the revenue, maintain the army, and be responsible for the administration of civil justice. Not being familiar with the state of country in the interior,the Company did not interfere with the management of civil institutions till 1722, except by the appointment of a few European officials, with superior authority, to superintend the revenue and judicial administration. At this time Mohamedan criminal law was in force throughout the courts. The principal criminal courts were of the Nawab and his deputy, and of the Faujdars. In the province the zamindars and farmers were responsible for public safety and exercised civil and criminal jurisdiction over their respective districts. Their authority was supreme except in capital cases which were to be reported to the Nizam.