Warren hastings reforms

WARREN HASTINGS became the first and the most famous of the British Governor
Generals of India, who dominated Indian affairs from 1772 to 1785 and was impeached
(though acquitted), on his return to England. When Warren Hastings took up office as
governor of Bengal, he had to face many difficulties. There was chaos in the country.
The ‘Dual Government’ had caused confusion and disorder in the state. There was no
satisfactory arrangement for the collection of revenue and the revenue income was
irregular. He gave the plan of 1772 and 1774 which marked the beginnings of Adalat
System and Supreme Court in India. Warren Hastings carried out a large number of
reforms and those of maybe discuss under four hands, viz., administrative, revenue,
economic and judicial.

1. Administrative Reforms:

Warren Hastings put an end to the dual system of government in Bengal which was
established by Robert Clive in 1765. The Company took over the responsibility of
administration of the province and started to collect the revenue through the agency of
its own servants.

2. Revenue reforms

He appointed collectors for revenue collection and administration, who were to be

helped by native officers. . To supervise the whole organization, a Board of Revenue
was established at Calcutta

3. Economic reforms

Warren Hastings prohibited the use of Dastaks by the servants of the Company and
thereby added to the revenues of the Company. reduced the duties on all goods except
salt, betel nut and tobacco.

4. Judicial reforms

In 1772, he established Diwani Adalat (Civil Court) and a Faujdari Adalat (Criminal
Court) in each districts. The Diwani Adalat was presided over by the English collector
and Faujdari Adalat was presided over by Indian officers Qazis and Muftis. Two courts
of appeal were established at Calcutta. They are the Sadar Diwani Adalat (the Supreme
of Civil Court) and the Sadar Nizamat Adalat (the Supreme Criminal Court) which
heard appeals from the Diwani Adalat and Faujdari Adalat respectively. He also
compiled a simple code about the personal laws of Hindus and Muslims
Background

1. Courts in Bengal under the Mughals

Mughal empire began to disintegrate in 1750 which made many

provinces as independent. In each district many courts were established
to hear civil and criminal matters. These courts have been assigned with
many functions which caused difficulties to the common masses

2. Originating of a legal vacuum

The Mughals did not have any specific law to govern foreigners. This
created legal vacuum. The zamindars were empowered to try both civil
and criminal cases and thus became a very powerful person. The judges
were found to be corrupt

To tackle all these problems and to remove corruption from the

administration of justice warren hastings introduced the reforms

Plan of 1782

It consisted of 37 regulations which deals with civil and criminal laws. This
plan aimed at correcting the defects without destroying the traditions and
customs. This plan divided the territory of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa into number
of Districts. In each District an English servant of the company was appointed as
collector

For management of civil justice, the following courts were established,

CIVIL (Kolkata)

Appeal system-Amin’s court……………..Mofussil Diwani Adalat…………….Sardar

Diwani Adalat…………….king in council

1.Sardar diwani adalat (province)

 Warren hatings acted as the governor and finalized cases

 High court of particular Bengal presidency
  Governor+2 senior council members
 Cases above 500 would be dealt by this court
 Quazi and pandit assisted them

2.Mofussil Diwani Adalat (district)

 Headed by collector
 He was assisted by quazi and pandit
 Muslim cases- with the help of quazi
 Indian cases with the help of pandit
 Cases below 500 dealt by this court

3. court of head farmers (Amin’s court)

 Native indian was appointed as head of this court

 Cases till Rs.10 dealt by this court

Criminal

Criminal jurisdiction was under Nizam. As he was 12 yrs old to assist him Deputy
Subhedar post was created. The land sovereignty was under Mughals and the
medium of criminal justice was Muslim law

1. Sadar Nizamat adalt

 Hq at Murshidabad
 Daroga on behalf of Nawab could finalize all the cases but for the death
penalty he had to take the permission of Nawab
 Mufti acted as Islamic law expert

 Quazi was the old judge

 Maulvis are the scholars of Islamic law

2. Mofuzil fouzdari court

 Fouzdar with the help of quazi, mufti and maulvis used to finalize the cases
 Daroga who was the nominee of the company had to take the permission of
Nawab for death sentence

Plan of 1774
  The abolition of collector was done in1773 on the advice of the court
of directors. Warren hastings prepared new plan on 1773. The
changes made regarding revenue, civil and criminal reforms are as
follows
 Revenue
Paragana level officers were promoted to district. Their responsibility
was to supervise tax collection and decide cases incase of appeal from
Mofussil diwani adalat. Each provincial level had to take supervision
of tax collection at mofussil level. In case of revenue disputes, the
hierarchy of appeal was

Mofussil diwani adalt…………..provincial council of appeals………

Board of revenue…..Sardar diwani adalat

There are 6 provincial court of appeals. Each provincial has 6 diwani

adalats

 Civil reforms

The provisions relating to appeals in civil cases were also considerably liberalised
under the plan of 1774. Now all cases decided by the Mofussil Diwani Adalats
were appealable to the Provincial Council irrespective of the value of the subject
matter of the suit. There was also a provision for second appeal to the Sadar
Diwani Adalat in cases exceeding the value of Rs. 1000.

Appeal system follows..

Mofussil diwani adalt…………..provincial council of appeals

…..Sardar diwani adalat

 Criminal reforms

Local criminal jurisdiction was under Subhedar with the help of

Darogha and the supreme court has jurisdiction on native Indians
residing in calcutta regarding criminal matters