1813. 53 Geo. 3, COURTS FOR THE PROVINCES. (7) Natives of India in the service of the Company declared subject c.155,$109. to provincial courts. § 113. (8) The provincial courts of the highest jurisdiction may arrest in civil or criminal process within the presidencies, notwithstanding the jurisdiction of the King's Courts. COURTS FOR THE PROVINCES. THE principal courts established under the presidency of Fort St. George for the administration of civil and criminal justice in the provinces, are similar to those existing in Bengal; viz. the Sudder and Foujdarry Adawlut, the Provincial Courts, and Courts of Circuit, and the Zillah Courts, with their registers. Vakeels, or native pleaders, and Hindoo and Mahommedan law officers, are attached to the courts; and native commissioners are appointed to decide causes of inferior magnitude. In the year 1814, the Court of Directors communicated to the government of Madras the result of an investigation in which they had been engaged, relative to the then prevailing judicial and revenue systems. The court pointed out the defects which they considered to exist, and directed such a modification to be introduced as should extend the means of administering justice through native agency; thereby relieving the zillah and provincial courts, and at the same time laying a foundation for the diminution of the expense attending that branch of the public service. To carry into effect these instructions, a commission was formed, at the head of which the present governor of Madras, then Colonel Munro, was nominated by the Court's orders chief commissioner, Mr. George Stratton being the second commissioner. Regulations proposed by the commissioners were adopted by the Madras government in 1816, declaring that heads of villages, by virtue of their office, should be moonsiffs within their respective villages; with powers to decide suits for personal property not exceeding ten rupees. It may not be uninteresting to insert the description of a native village, as given in the Fifth Answering to the Sudder Dewanny and Nizamut Adawlut in Bengal. COURTS FOR THE PROVINCES. Fifth Report, printed by order of the Committee of the House of Commons, on India Affairs, in 1812. "A village, geographically considered, is a tract of country comprizing some hundreds or thousands of acres of arable and waste land politically viewed, it resembles a corporation or township. Its proper establishment of officers and servants consists of the following descriptions: the potail, or head inhabitant, who has the general superintendence of the affairs of the village, settles the disputes of the inhabitants, attends to the police, and performs the duty of collecting the revenues within his village, a duty which his personal influence, and minute acquaintance with the situation and concerns of the people, render him best qualified to discharge; the curnum, who keeps the accounts of cultivation, and registers every thing connected with it; the talliar and totie, the duty of the former appearing to consist in a wider and more enlarged sphere of action, in gaining information of crimes. and offences, and in escorting and protecting persons travelling from one village to another: the province of the latter appearing to be more immediately confined to the village, consisting, among other duties, in guarding the crops and assisting in measuring them; the boundary-man, who preserves the limits of the village, or gives evidence respecting them, in cases of dispute; the superintendant of the tanks and watercourses, distributes the water therefrom, for the purposes of agriculture; the brahmin, who performs the village worship; the schoolmaster, who is seen teaching the children in the villages to read and write in the sand; the calendar brahmin, or astrologer, who proclaims the lucky or unpropitious periods for sowing and threshing; the smith and carpenter, who manufacture the implements of agriculture, and build the dwelling of the ryot;-the potman, or potter; the washerman; the barber, the cow-keeper, who looks after the cattle; the doctor; the dancing girl, who attends at rejoicings; the musician and the poet; these officers and servants generally constitute the establishment of the village; but in some parts of a country, it is of less extent, some of the duties and functions abovedescribed being united in the same person; in others, it exceeds the number of individuals which have been described. "Under COURTS FOR THE PROVINCES. "Under this simple form of municipal government, the inhabitants of the country have lived from time immemorial: the boundaries of the villages have been but seldom altered; and though the villages themselves have been sometimes injured, and even desolated by war, famine, and disease, the same name, the same limits, the same interest, and even the same families, have continued for ages. The inhabitants give themselves no trouble about the breaking-up and division of kingdoms; while the village remains entire, they care not to what power it is transferred, or to what sovereign it devolves: its internal economy remains unchanged; the potail is still the head inhabitant, and still acts as the petty judge and magistrate, and collector or renter of the village." With the view of diminishing the expense of litigation, and in order to render the principal and more intelligent inhabitants useful and respectable by employing them in administering justice to their neighbours, a regulation was passed, directing the assembling punchayets, for the adjudication of civil suits, on the application of both the parties interested. It was likewise ordained, that the Hindoo law officers of the provincial courts should be sudder ameens, or head native commissioners; and to enable the zillah judge to devote more time to the administration of civil justice, the duties of magistrate were transferred to the collector. District moonsiffs were also appointed, with liberal allowances, for the purpose of facilitating the means of justice. A revised system of police was at the same time established throughout the presidency, under the following denomi nations: 1st.-Heads of villages coming under the denomination of potail, who collects the revenue, aided by curnums, or village registers, and tallyars, and other village watches. 2d.-Tehsildars, or native collectors of districts, by whatever name designated, with the assistance of peshkars, gomashtas,† and establishment of peons.‡ * Chief assistant. + A factor-agent. 3d.-Zemindars, A footman-a foot-soldier-an inferior servant. COURTS FOR THE PROVINCES. 3d.-Zemindars,* 4th.-Ameens of police, 5th.-Cutwals and their peons, 6th.-Magistrates of zillahs and their assistants. Little more than a reference to the leading points connected with these important subjects, has been attempted in this brief sketch. - A full and interesting detail is to be found in the Selections from the Company's records, printed by order of the Court of Directors, on the civil and criminal justice and police of India. The result of Colonel Munro's exertions fully answered the expectations which the Court had formed of his peculiar fitness for the office of head commissioner. Their warmest commendation of the zeal, ability, and judgment displayed by him, were conveyed to the government; and the services which he rendered to the Company and to the natives as chief of the commission, were considered to be as deserving of the Court's hearty acknowledgment, as any act of his long and honourable life. LAWS. The Governor in Council may frame Regulations for the Provincial LAWS. 1799. Geo. 3, c. 79, § 11. (1) And be it further enacted, that it shall and may be lawful to and for the governor and council at Fort St. George, to frame regulations from time to time for the provincial courts and councils within 39 and 40 the territories and provinces which now are, or shall at any time hereafter be (and while the same shall so be) annexed to or made subject to the said presidency, in like manner, and subject to all the regulations, provisions, and confirmations touching the same, as the governor-general and council at Fort William aforesaid are, by any act now in force, authorized and empowered to do, for the better administration of justice among the native inhabitants and others being within the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa. Landholder. + Chief officer of police in a large town or city. COURTS COURTS FOR THE PROVINCES. BOMBAY. ZILLAH Courts, with their registers and native establishments, and sudder ameens and native commissioners, exist under the presidency of Bombay. The provincial Court of Appeal, which was instituted in 1805, existed until 1820, when it was abolished; and the Sudder Adawlut, then established at the Presidency, being formed of the members of government, was modified to meet the change, and with the Sudder Foujdarry Adawlut, transferred from Bombay to Surat, and the members appointed by the governor from the covenanted servants of the Company. The courts are composed of the same judges, being four in number. Each of the three puisne judges of the Foujdarry Adawlut, in rotation, makes the circuit of all the zillahs, to hold general jail deliveries. In 1818, the office of zillah magistrate was transferred from the judge to the collector of the zillah, the former being constituted a criminal as well as civil judge. Native officers and pleaders, as at the other presidencies, are attached to these courts. The mode of adjusting suits by arbitration, appears to have existed more or less in the provinces under the Bombay government; and although there is no regulation prescribing the adoption of the punchayet, as at Madras, there is reason to believe that mode has been frequently resorted to. A revised system of police, upon the same principle as that existing at Fort St. George, was introduced by the government of Bombay in 1818. LAWS. 1807. c. 68, LAWS. (1) And be it further enacted, that it shall and may be lawful to and for the Governor in Council at Governor in council at Bom. bay to frame re gulations for provincial courts. 47 Geo. 3, Bombay, to frame regulations, from time to time, for the provincial courts and councils within the territories and provinces which now are, or shall at any time hereafter be (and while the same shall so be) annexed to or made § 3. subject |
