ADALAT SYSTEM IN BENGAL

1. Courts in Bengal under the Mughals

 The establishment of the Muslim rule in India opened a new chapter in its judicial history. The
Muslim conquerors brought with them a new religion, a new civilization and a new social
system.
 The laws were mainly based on the holy book of Islam the Quran.
 Classification of Courts:
In Bengal the courts which were administering civil and criminal justice, in the Districts
and at the Provincial Capital are,
1) Provincial Courts: at provincial headquarter 4 courts were established
 Nazim-e-subah: it was the highest court of the province.It dealt with all criminal
appeals from district courts, murder cases, revision petition and cases referred
to it by the district courts due to difference of opinion between Qazi and Mufti.
(Qazi – A judge , Mufti – A jurist of the Muslim community responsible for
expounding the law that the qazi would administer)
 Daroga-e-adalat diwani: heard all local civil suits and appeals, matters relating
to real property and land from district civil courts.
 Court of diwan: had original and appellate jurisdiction in all revenue cases.
 Daroga-e-adalat Aliah: disposed of all revenue work on behalf of diwan.

2)District courts: was established to hear civil and criminal cases.

 3 Civil courts 4 Criminal courts

Court of Qazi- hear all claims of
transfer of propertyand matters
relating to inheritance.
Court of zamindar-hear all civil and
common pleas.
Court of Qanungo-cases related to
revenue.
Faujdar courts- tried criminal and
common law cases.
Court of zamindar- tried mostly
petty criminal cases in a summary
manner.
Court of Qazi- was empowered to
make full enquiries in murder cases
only and was required to submit a
report to Court of Nazim-e-Subah.
Court of Kotwal- was a peace officer
and was authorised to decide petty
criminal cases

 Funtioning of courts:
 The judicial courts provided by the Mughals were principally of two types—
secular and ecclesiastical.
 Every provincial capital had its Qazi and
 at the head of judicial administration was the Supreme Qazi of the empire.
 every town and every village large enough was classed as Qasba having its
own Qazi.
  Qazi had to be a Muslim Scholar of blameless life, thoroughly conversant with
the prescriptions of the sacred law.
 Qazi’s has to be honest and impartial.
 The judicial system of the Mughals was similar to that of the sultanate.
 Courts became systematic particularly under Aurangzeb, but as compared
with the judicial structure of British India, it was very simple, being based on a
different approach to many categories of disputes.
 Normally no lawyers were allowed to appear.
 The disputes were speedily settled, often on the basis of equity and natural
justice.
 Many crimes including murder were treated as individual grievances rather
than crimes against society.
 The aim of the judicial system was primarily to settle individual complaints
and disputes rather than to enforce a legal code.
 All foreign travelers have commented on the speedy justice of the Mughal
courts and the comparatively few cases coming before them.
 The Hindus were not debarred from taking cases before the qazi or the
governor ,they had their own arrangements for settling their disputes.
 When both parties in a dispute were Hindus, the point at issue was referred to
Hindu pandits for an opinion.

 Defects of Judicial System:

 Influential landlords were authorized to maintain law and order in local area.
 Landlords commonly known as Zamindars.
 Zamindars were empowered to try petty civil and crial cases.
 Due to which they became very powerful and gained importance.
 Peasants were deprived from justice.
 Corruption amongst judges and servants of government further added to
defective state of local system.
 It became difficult to file an appeal as no register of judicial proceedings was
properly maintained.
 Whole judicial system was degraded into machine of oppression.
 Courts became instruments of power instead of justice.
 Mughal government had no interest in making foreigners amenable to their
laws, except for police and revenue matters,
 or in disputes arising between the Indian subjects and foreigners.
 Thus in respect of inter se affairs of foreigners in these settelments a legal
vaccum was created in which increased with the decline of Mughal empire.
 To tackle all these problems and to remove corruption from administration
of justice, Warren Hastings was transferred from Madras to Gov. of Bengal
in 1772.

2. Dual Government in Bengal and its consequences:

  The East India Company became the real master of Bengal at least from 1765.
 The Battle of Buxar was fought on 22 October 1764 between the British and the
combined forces of Mir Qasim(Nawab of Bengal), Shuja Ud Daulah (Nawab of Awadh)
and the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II. This battle was won by Britishers.
 The Treaty of Allahabad was signed on 12 August 1765 between the Mughal Emperor
Shah Alam II, son of the late Emperor Alamgir II, and Robert Clive, of the East India
Company, in the aftermath of the Battle of Buxar.
 The Treaty marked the political and constitutional involvement and the beginning of
British rule in India.
 Based on the terms of the agreement, Shah Alam II granted the East India Company
Diwani rights, or the right to collect taxes on behalf of the Emperor from the eastern
province of Bengal-Bihar-Orissa. These rights allowed the Company to collect revenue
directly from the people of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa.
 In exchange company agreed to pay the Emperor a sum of 26 lakhs rupees and to
Nawab of Bengal a fixed sum of 53 lakhs of rupees annually.
 The Nawab in return agreed not to keep any military force independently.
 The company made best use of this opportunity to strengthen its position and develop
a strong army for itself in name of the Nawab.

 Nawab as puppet:
 Nawab who was subhedar of Bengal represented the Mughal Emperor of India.
 Nawab performed two main functions:
 Diwani: collection of revenue and civil justice
 Nizamat: military power and criminal justice
 The Company got the rights of the Diwani i.e the rights to collect revenue and
dispensation of civil justice for Bengal, Bihar and Orissa from the Mughal
emperor. These rights to company was obtained by Robert Clive.
 The Nawab of Bengal retained the rights of the Nizamat i.e the rights to
maintain peace and order, defend the frontiers against foreign aggression and
dispensation of criminal justice.
 The Nawab had lost all real powers and was mere shadow in the background.

 Funtioning of Dual Government:

 The administration of civil justice and collection of revenue were left in native
hands under supervision of Company official.
 Clive appointed two prominent natives:
1)Mohammed Reza Khan(Company’s diwan at Murshidabad)
2)Raja Shitab Roy (Company’s diwan at Patna)
 This typical division of power and responsibility – revenue, executive and
judicial between the Nawabs and Company in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa
became famous as Dual Government introduced by Robert Clive.
 Company became more powerful and reduced the authority of the Nawab.
  It was merely a fiction adopted to conceal the de-facto position of Company
which already had real power in Bengal.

 Failure of Dual Government:

 The divorce of power from responsibility under the dual government in
Benagl further deteriorated the efficiency of whole administration
machinery.
 English servants of company misused their power and postion to meet
selfish ends.
 This led to exploitation of the people Bengal, Bihar and Orissa
 It encouraged corruption, bribery, misappropriation and their evil
consequences ruined a prosperous and flourishing Bengal.
 Revenue decreased considerably
 There was too much power with too little responsibility.
 Abuses of private trade by the servants of the Company reached a climax
 Indian industries were also ruined. The Company used its political power
to ruin the silk industry in Bengal.
 The representatives of the Company arbitrarily decided the quality of the
cloth, its quantity of production and its price much against the interest of
the artisans.
 If any artisan or worker protested, he was severely punished or tortured.
 Instead of being refuge of the oppressed the Courts had been turned into a
scandalously corrupt body.
 It was in this context that Warren Hastings was called.

 Conclusion:
 In 1770, Bengal suffered from a severe famine and nearly one-third population
of Bengal fell victim to its ravages.
 Though of course it was primarily because of the failure of rains, there is no
doubt that the sufferings of the people had increased manifold because of the
misgovernance of Bengal under the system of Dual Government.
 Robert Clive left India in January 1767
 Warren Hastings was transferred from Madras to Governorship of Bengal in
1772.
 He came with clear instructions by the Court of Directors that the naib (deputy)
Diwans, Muhammad Reza Khand and Raja Shitab Ray, were to be removed
from their offices and placed under trial and, henceforth, the Company had to
stand forth as the Diwan.
 Hastings realized that it was not desirable to keep the rights of Diwani and
Nizamat (right of defence, peace and other and criminal justice) in separate
hands.
 Therefore, he took away the right of Nizamat also from the hands of the
Nawab and was granted a pension of rupees sixteen lacs annually for his
personal expenses.
 Thus the Dual Government in Bengal was abolished and the Company became
the de jure as well as the de facto ruler of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.