The EIC had been refraining from direct administration in Bengal in the past for two reasons;

Firstly, the doctrine of English Constitutional Law whereby no British subject could acquire
sovereignty over any territory for himself and; Secondly, to prevent arousing jealousy of the
French and the Portuguese that could lead to international complications. After the battle of
Buxar in 1764, the affairs of the Company in Bengal took a turn. In 1765, the nominal Mughal
emperor Shah Alam granted the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa to the Company in return of
an annual payment of Rs. 26 lakh. This gave the Company the de jure status in Bengal. This was
only a fiction to conceal the de facto position and real power it enjoyed in Bengal.

PLAN OF 1772

Warren Hastings’s administrative plan of 1772 was devised with ‘district’ as a unit. Each district
employed a collector, an English servant who was responsible for revenue collection. The chief
features of the Plan of 1772 were as follows:

MOFUSSIL DIWANI ADALAT- This was established in each district to deal with civil matters.
The collector acted as the judge over these matters that ranged from disputes over personal
property, contracts, accounts, partnership, inheritance etc. Personal laws were applied to the
Hindu and Muslim respectively. Since the collector was an Englishman who was unaware of the
legal system, he sought the assistance of Indian law officers, pundits and Qazis etc. Cases
decided upto Rs. 500 were final.

SMALL CAUSE ADALAT- This court was established for disputes upto Rs. 10 to resolve small
matters locally by the head farmer of the pergunnah where the dispute arose. This saved people
the time and money to travel long distances to courts.

MOFUSSIL FOZDARI ADALAT- Alternatively called the Mofussil Nizamat Adalat, this was
established in every district for criminal cases. It consisted of Muslim law officers, qazis, muftis
and moulvies. Moulvies were to expound the law applicable and the Qazi and the Muftis were to
give futwa and render the judgement respectively. The collector acted only as a supervisor in this
court, to see if the cases were being tried fairly and necessary witnesses were being examined
etc. This court could not deal ‘finally’ with matters pertaining to death sentences and forfeiture
of property and the same had to be submitted to the Sadar Nizamat Adalat.
SADAR ADALATS- These courts were the courts of appeal. There was a Sadar Diwani Adalat
and a Sadar Nizamat Adalat. An appeal could be filed within 2 months of the passing of the
decree by the Mofussil adalats.

Sadar Nizamat Adalat had an Indian judge called the Daroga-i-Adalat who was assisted by
chief-qasi, chief-mufti and three moulvies. All were appointed by the Nawab on the advice of the
Governor. The Nawab also signed the final death warrants. The Governor and the Council
supervised this court for partiality or corruption.

OTHER MISCELLANEOUS CHANGES BROUGHT BY THE PLAN-

1. For impartial justice, all proceedings were to happen in open court.

2. All adalats were to maintain proper registers and records.
3. The district adalats were to transit these registers and records to the Sadar adalats.
4. Cases older than 12 years were not to be actionable.
5. The plan laid a general procedure for trial, where after the filing of the plaint, the
defendant was given limited time to respond, parties were heard, evidence was examined
and decree was passed.
6. To make the process inexpensive, moderate fees were prescribed for trial of civil cases. a
fee of 5% of appeal was to be given in sadar adalats
7. Arbitration was also provided for in the plan.
8. Warren Hastings introduced a strict rule to supress dacoity, rampant in those times. The
dacoit would be executed in his village, which was fined and their families were made
slaves to the state. Hastings had found fine, imprisonment and mutilation to be ineffective
this leading to this harsh punishment.

POSITIVES OF THE PLAN

The plan of 1772 did honour to Warren Hastings. It was considered a creditable achievement for
‘infant administrators’ as described by Kaye. Before this plan, the area of law and justice was
chaotic. The foundations of the Anglo-Indian judicial system were thus laid down by Hastings.
  The vexatious fees charged by the Qazis etc. were abolished as the officers became
salaried.

The old commission basis was also replaced by court fees that went to the government and not to
the judge who would otherwise have a personal interest in the result of the case. District courts
made access to justice easier. Abolition of judicial powers of zamindars was a relief to the
people.

Plan of 1772 was based on the traditional division of authority between the Nizam and the
Diwan. Accordingly, separate courts existed for civil and criminal matters. While administration
of civil justice was taken over by English judges, the criminal cases were left to Muslim judges.
This was because Company as the Diwan of Bengal was responsible only for civil matters. The
Nawab could deal with criminal matters and the Company had no obligation to intervene
directly. The criminal justice system was utterly chaotic in the country. The courts became
instruments of oppression with high fines that only increased their direct interest in finding the
accused guilty. Thugee increased along with other vile crimes. Since the Nawab was a minor, he
could not supervise effectively and was under the influence of unscrupulous officers. The
Calcutta government could not be completely neutral in such cases where the matters pertained
to law and order in the state. Even though there were strong reasons for the company to take over
the criminal justice system, Hastings did not want to overtly indulge into interference with what
was left of the Nizamat. This would go against the Company’s stance of maintaining the fiction
of the Nawab. He provided for supervision of the criminal justice system by the collectors and
the Governor and Council at Calcutta. He himself characterised the setting up of the Sadar
Nizamat Adalat (at Calcutta instead of Murshidabad, the seat of the Nawab) as an act of injustice
in which he had to indulge due to the unsatisfactory state of affairs prevailing in Bengal.

DEFECTS OF THE PLAN OF 1772

1. Paucity of adalats in the interiors of a district to decide small cases. The only solution to
this problem was to establish a number of subordinate courts with small values leaving
only the larger valued cases for the district adalats.
2. Concentration of too much power in the hands of the collector. He acts as the
administrator, tax collector, civil judge, and the supervisor of the criminal judicature. It
 was feared that the collector could become a tyrant and oppress people by abusing his
position.

PLAN OF 1774

This plan was to improvise the plan of 1772.

CHANGES

1. The collectors were recalled from the districts and ‘diwan’ or ‘amil’, an Indian officer
was appointed in each district in place of the collector. He collected revenues and acted
as a judge in Mofussil diwani adalat.
2. The territory of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa was divided into six divisions that were further
divided into districts. Provincial Council was appointed at each division.
- It consisted of 4 - 5 English servants.
3. The provincial council dealt with appeals from mofussil courts and these were cases upto
Rs. 1000. Appeals from PC went to Sadar diwani adalats. These constituted a link
between the MDA and the SDA.
4. Provincial Council became a vital link in the administrative system. It performed a three
fold function: (a) overseeing revenue collection; (b) hear appeals from district courts
and; (c) hear cases as a court of first instance at its seat.
5. PC ensured that not all cases Rs. 500 upward went from MDA to SDA. It acted as a
nearer court of appeal.

DEFECTS

1. Provincial Councils now replaced the collectors as ‘possible tyrants’. These would be
more dangerous than the collectors since these were senior servants of the Company with
status equal to members of the Council. They would be difficult to control. Hastings
knew before hand and feared their monopolisation of trade within their jurisdiction.

SADAR NIZAMAT ADALAT

This court was established by Hastings to make matters criminal matters expedient because the
death warrants would be too delayed once sent for signing to the Nawab. He ensured that the
Daroga-i-Adalat of the SNA was the deputy of the Nawab and he could do such signings. Same
resolutions also requested the Governor to superintend over the Daroga and therefore the
effective control came into Hastings’s hands.

Criminal system collapsed for various reasons:

1. This system set by Hastings collapsed when the SC came into existence at Calcutta
2. He found supervising SNA an arduous task
3. The office of Naib Nazim was created and Mohd. Reza Khan was appointed to control
the Adalat on behalf of the Nawab
4. GG and Council’s supervision over the SNA came to an end

Collectors were withdrawn and so criminal matters fell squarely with the Muslim judges