MADRAS

1. In 1639, Francis Dey , British o cer acquired a piece of land from the indian ruler of travain core for east india company
and constructed forti ed factory.
2. Besides the Raja granted a village to the company known as 'Madraspatnam' and empowered the company to govern
and dispose of the government of the village.
3. The people residing inside the factory were Englishmen and other Europeans and therefore the area of the factory came
to be known as 'White Town' and the people residing in the village Madrasapatnam were mostly Indians and therefore it
came to be known as 'Black town’.
4. The whole settlement consisting of white town and black town came to be known as ‘Madras'.

Administration & Justice.

FIRST STAGE: 1639-1665

WHITE TOWN:

1. Before 1665, Madras was not a presidency town and it was subordinate to Surat.
2. The administrative head was called as 'Agent' and he was to administer the settlement with the help of a council. The agent
and the members of his council were to administer civil and criminal justice to the inhabitants of white town
3. The serious criminal cases were often referred to them to the company's authorities in England for advice.

DEFECTS:
1. The judicial power of the agent and council was vague and inde nite. The serious criminal cases were referred by
them to the company's authorities in England for advice which involved much delay.
2. The agent and the members of his council, who were of administer justice, were merchants and not lawyers.
They were supposed to decide cases according to English laws, but actually they did not even have elementary
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 knowledge of the English laws. Consequently, they used to decide cases according to their wisdom and common
sense.
3. There was no separation between the executive and judiciary. The agent and council constituted both the
executive and judicial authority for the white town.

BLACK TOWN:

1. The old judicial system was allowed to function and there was a village headman known as Adigar Adhikari) who was
responsible for the maintenance of law and order.
2. The Choultry court with Adigar as the judge was to decide civil and criminal cases of the natives according to long
established usages and thus it was a court of petty cases and not to hear the cases of grave o ences committed by the
natives.
3. The appeals from the Choultry court was to be heard by the Agent-in-council.
4. An Indian native, Kannappa was appointed as Adigar but he misused his power and consequently he was dismissed from
the o ce and the English servants of the company were appointed to sit at Choultry court. (1652)

DEFECTS:

1. There was no xed procedure for the trial of serious criminal cases and the procedure varied from case to case.
2. The judge of the Choultry court was a layman and not a lawyer.
3. The Choultry court could decide only small civil and criminal cases. It was empowered to decide the serious criminal cases
like murder etc.
4. There was no separation between the executive and the judiciary. The agent and council constituted both the executive
and judicial authority and they were to hear appeals from the Choultry court.
5. As for the criminal matters the incharge felt that he has no power to do so h used to send matter to agent but agent did not
used to bother as it was the matter of Indians , then it was sent to Raja who again did not bother as factory members has
their own terms which he don’t want to interfere in, later the latter was sent by agent to England.
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 CHARTER OF 1661:

Requirement: Every time serious criminal matters were sent to England , every time any event happened they started looking
forward at England for justice.
Need to make agents empowered so that they can solve their own matters.

1. In 1661, a charter was granted by the British Crown which conferred broad powers on the East India Company.
2. It authorized the Governor and council of each factory to hear the cases of all persons whether Indians or Englishmen or
Europeans, while under the charter of 1600 only the cases of the company's servants could be heard.
3. The Charter of 1661 authorized the Governor and council to hear and decide all types of civil and criminal cases including
the cases of capital o ences and could award even death sentence, while under the Charter of 1600 capital o ences could
not be awarded and death sentence could not be awarded.
4. It is to be noted that the above said powers conferred on the company could only be exercised by the Governor and council
appointed by the company and where there was no Governor, the Chief factor and council were empowered to send
o enders for punishment either to a place where there was a Governor and council or to England.

SECOND STAGE :1665-1683

1. In 1665, One Mrs. Ascentia Dawes was charged with the commission of murder of her slave girl and the Agent -in-council
referred the case to the company's authority in England for advice.
2. The company raised the status of agency of Madras to that of the presidency and status of Agent to that of Governor,
because the powers conferred on the company by the Charter of 1661 could only be exercised by the Governor and council
and not by the agent-in-council.
3. Under the Charter of 1661, the Governor and council were authorized to hear all types of civil and criminal cases including
capital o ences like murder.
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4. After the status has been raised from Agent to Governor, the case of Mrs.Dawes was tried by the Governor with the help of
jury as per the company's direction and an unexpected verdict of not guilty was given and consequently Mrs.Dawes was
acquitted.
5. In 1678, the whole judicial administration was reorganized and the judiciary in both White Town and Black Town was
improved to some extent.

WHITE TOWN:
Strensham Master came to India as a governor of madras. He created a court named High court of Judicature.
1. The court of Governor and council was declared as High court of Judicature and it was empowered to hear all civil and
criminal cases of the inhabitants of White town with the help of a jury.
2. Besides it was to hear serious criminal cases of Indian inhabitants in Black town and also appeals from Choultry court with
the help of a jury.
3. The court was to meet twice a week and decide cases according to English laws.

BLACK TOWN:
1. The Choultry court was also reorganized and the number of judges were increased to three.
2. All the judges were Englishmen and atleast two of them were to sit in the court for two days in each week.
3. This court was empowered to hear petty criminal cases and civil cases upto 50 pagodas (pagoda was gold coin and one
pagoda was equal of 3rupees) and the cases of a higher value with the consent of the parties and appeals were referred to
High court of Judicature.

THIRD STAGE: 1683-1724

COUTS OF ADMIRALTY:
1. During this period two important courts were established, i.e, Court of Admiralty under the Charter of 1683 and 1686 issued
by the British crown and Mayor's court under Charter of 1687 issued by East India Company and not by British crown.
2. The crime of piracy on the high seas was on increase. To deal with it there was need of a court having jurisdiction to hear
and decide the cases of piracy was felt.
3. In short the above said crimes attracted the company to establish courts having jurisdiction to hear and decide all maritime
and mercantile cases.
4. Under the Charter of 1683, the court of Admiralty was to consist of a learned person in civil laws as a judge and two
merchants to assist the judge was appointed.
5. It was empowered to hear and decide all types of maritime and mercantile cases and also cases of forfeiture of ships,
trespass, injuries and wrongs.
6. It was to decide cases according to law of equity and good conscience and also laws and customs of merchants, but
however it was bound to follow the British crown's direction in relation to its procedure.
7. The provisions of the Charter of 1683 were repeated by the British crown in another Charter granted in April 1686 with
some new modi cations.
8. Under the Charters of 1683 and 1686 the court of Admiralty was established at Madras on 10* July 1686 and John Grey was
appointed as judge of this court and two Englishmen were appointed as his assistants.
9. On 22d July 1687, Sir John Biggs, who was a professional lawyer was appointed as Judge Advocate) of the court.
10. Thereafter the jurisdiction of the Governor and council relinquished the judicial function and the jurisdiction of Admiralty
court was extended to hear civil and criminal cases also.
11. In certain cases the appeals from Mayor's court was also heard by the Admiralty court.
12. The above features didn’t continue for a longer periods as sir John Biggs died later in 1689. His death ceased to operate the
courts. There was no court available to hear appeals from mayor court.

MAYOR’S COURT:
1st Municipal corporation was made in madras 1687.
1. In 1687, a Corporation and Mayor's court was established under the Charter of 1687 issued by the east india company.
2. In the year 1686 Madras government levied a house tax on the Madras City population to repair the City wall. But people of
Madras, Local people did not pay tax and Company faced problems and di culties to collect tax, after this company
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 decided that to make the tax collection easy a body should be formed consisting of Englishmen as well as Local Indians
population so it will become easy for the company o cials to collect the tax.
3. The corporation came in to existence on September 29 ,1668 which consists of a one Mayor, 12 Alderman and 60 to 120
Burgesses. It was decided that every year new Mayor will be elected from Alderman by Alderman and Burgesses and
retiring Mayor can be re-elected by them.
4. The Alderman and Burgesses got the power to remove the Mayor if he is unable to perform his duties, only Englishman
becomes the Mayor. The Alderman hold the o ce as long as they stayed in Madras City indirectly they hold the o ce for
life long.
5. Mayor, Burgesses holds the power to remove the Alderman from o ce also if he did not perform well. The charter
appointed 29 Burgesses and then remaining Burgesses were appointed by the Mayor and Alderman. Among 1st 60
Burgesses the caste head were selected as the Burgesses.
6. This was the nature of 1st corporation the Mayor and three Senior Alderman were to be the justice of the peace. The Mayor
and 2 Alderman were to form a court of record which was authorized to try civil as well as criminal case once a week. This
court was known as Mayors court.
BURGESSES : Representative of di erent communities .

BOMBAY
1. Portuguese were the 1st European to acquire the island of Bombay in 1534 from the King of Gujarat in 1661. Portuguese
King Alfonsus VI transferred the island to Charles II as Dowry on the marriage of his sister Catherine with the British King.
Charles II transferred it to the East India Company in 1668 for an insigni cant annual rent of 10 pounds. Before 1726, the
Judicial system the Island of Bombay grew in Three Stages –
1) First Stage – (1667– 1683)
2) Second Stage – (1683 – 1690)
3) Third Stage – (1718– 1726)
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FIRST PHASE: 1667-1683
CHARTER OF 1667:

The charter granted to the company at the time of Charles ll also authorised full powers and privileges and jusrisdiction for
administration , law and delivery of justice in Bombay. The charter empowered the company to make laws for the good
governance of island and to impose for the due observance of the said loss pain penalties punishments by the way of nes
imprisonment or even death. The charter contained the fullest powers for governing the island which by any form of words
would convey. It concedes IMPERIUM AND JURISDICTIO and although it indicated the model on which legal institutions to be
framed up. It does not fetter the grantees any technical rules derived from English judicature which might prove wholly
unsuitable for mixed community of east.

COURTS WERE CREATED IN FIRST JUDICIAL PLAN 1670.

During this period two judicial systems were established. The rst of them was established in 1670. According to this, Bombay
was divided into two divisions. Each division had a court consisting of ve judges. The Custom Of cer of the Division was the
President of the Court. A separate court was established for each division and each court had 5 judges and 3 judges were
Englishmen and rest 2 were Indians .Some of the judges in these courts were Indians. The jurisdiction of this Court extended to
petty criminal cases, e.g. thefts involving the stolen property upto 5 xeraphins and similar other cases. The civil cases which
came before this court, were also of petty nature. It had no jurisdiction to decide cases involving more than 200 xeraphins.
Appeals against the judgements of this court could be led in the court of the Deputy- Governor and Council.

Besides the cases beyond the jurisdiction of divisional court i.e civil cases over 200 xeraphins and all serious criminal cases
like felony, murder, mutiny etc was to be decided by Deputy Governor and council.
An appeal from the court of deputy Governor and council was allowed to the Governor and council at Surat only in cases of
absolute necessity.
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SECOND JUDICIAL PLAN: 1672
• Reasons : As there were loopholes in rst one as there were no police to catch criminals.
• Englishmen were not ready to be judges as they were not interested and there were no incentives given to them to motivate
them to do so and they were fully satis ed being traders , earning money , instant pro ts.
• Still Portuguese currency was in circulation laws were abided by and institutions were working.
AS A RESULT.
• By a government proclamation on August 1, 1672, the Portuguese laws were totally abolished ar 1 replaced by English laws
at Bombay and as per this plan the whole judicial system was totally reorganized.
• Portuguese institutions were banned August 8, 1672
• Portuguese currency was banned August 10, 1672
• As a result britishers decided to mint their own currency in a very systematic manner.

Court of Judicature-
A Court with Wilcox as its judge, was established to hear all civil and criminal cases. The Court also had jurisdiction in matters
of probate and testaments. For civil matters the court sat once a week. All the cases were decided with the help of jury. A
Court-Fee at the rate of 5% was also imposed in civil cases. For deciding criminal cases, the court used to sit once in a month.
BASE LEVEL COURT.

Court of Conscience-
This court was also presided over by Wilcox, it was called as Court of Conscience because it provided quick and summary
justice. It entertained only petty cases and decided civil matters of value upto 20 xeraphins. ( LOCAL INFLUENTIAL PERSONS
AND JUDGE ). LOWEST LEVEL COURT.

Court of Appeals-
The Deputy- Governor and council functioned as court of appeal. They heard appeals against the judgements of the court of
judicature in all matters. The judicial system which was established under the plan of 1672 worked well. It was quick,
inexpensive and e cient. Its main defect was that the judges did not enjoy independence required forgood administration of
justice TOP LEVEL COURT.

Governor of Surat + council members HIGHEST.

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• Under this plan for the purpose of administration of criminal justice Bombay was divided in to four divisions - Bombay,
Mahim, Mazagaon and Sion.
• In each division Justice of peace was appointed who were to act not as a court but as a committing Magistrate to arrest the
accused and examine the witnesses and also to send the record of his examination to court of Judicature.
• All the justice of peace were to sit in the court of Judicature as assessors to help the judges in trying the criminal cases and
appeals from the court of judicature were ot be heard by the Deputy Governor and council of Bombay.

SECOND PHASE : 1683-1690

CHARTER OF 1683
1. The Keignwin's rebellion surrendered the Island of Bombay in 1684 and thereafter the company took every possible e orts
to set up a regular judicial system in Bombay.
2. In 1684 a court of Admiralty was established under the Charter of 1683 with the same guidelines as in Madras.
3. It was empowered to decide maritime and mercantile cases initially, but later it got authority even to hear civil and criminal
cases.
4. This court should consist of a judge who is well versed in civil laws and he must be assisted by two English men.
5. Dr. St.John, who was an expert in civil laws was appointed as Judge-Advocate of the Admiralty court.
6. Dr.St.John was much spirited in having independent judiciary which caused much annoyance to the Bombay council and
Governor Mr.Childe who did not have any respect for the judiciary.
7. Dr.John took some evidence against Mr.Childe and the Governor Mr.Childe directed him not to take such type of evidences,
but John refused to follow his direction on the ground that he was bounded by the oath not to conceal any information
which was brought to his notice against any person.
8. The Governor had no faith on equality before law and therefore he was annoyed and an open con ict arose between John
and Childe and consequently the power of Dr.John to act as Chief Justice of the court of Judicature was withdrawn and the
civil and criminal jurisdiction of the Admiralty court was also forfeited.
9. In 1691, Siddi Yakub, an Admiral of Moghul Emperor attacked Bombay and the Judicial system in Bombay came to an end.
From 1690 to 1718 there was no court in Bombay and the Governor-in-council was deciding civil and criminal cases roughly.

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 1690- 1718
Dark Age
No court
Rule of Governor

THIRD PHASE : 1718-1726

1. On 25* March 1718, the court of Judicature was restarted having an English Chief Justice, ve English Judges and ve
Indian judges.
2. The ve Indian Judges represented the ve important communities of India namely Hindu, Muslims, Christians, Portuguese
and Parsis.
3. This court was empowered to hear all civil, criminal, probate and testamentary cases and the cases were to be decided
according to law of equity, good conscience and company's rules and ordinances and to some extent Indian customs and
usages were given consideration.
4. All English Judges were also members of the Governor’s Council and enjoyed status superior to Indian Judges. Three
English judges formed the quorum of the court. The Court met once a week.
5. Indian Judges, who were also known as “Black Justice” were included mainly to increase the e ciency of the Court and
their role was mostly that of assessors or assistants other English judges.
6. A notice to le an appeal was to given within Forty-Eight hours after the judgment was delivers to the Chief Justice of the
Court of Judicature.
7. Two punishments were given majority:
‘During pleasure’ as per the mood of judge punishment is granted.( Rama Kamati case)
Saja-e-Kala Pani : Isolate place for criminals
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 CALCUTTA
1690-1726
• The Englishmen Job channock landed in 1690 at Sutanati which is situated on the banks of river HugliIn and built a forti ed
factory known as Fort William.
• In 1698 the Subedar of Bengal granted the Zamindari rights of three villages Calcutta, Sutanati and Govindpur to the East
India Company.
• After this grant the status of the company was raised to that of Zamindars and the company started to exercise the Zamindari
rights in administration of Justice and collection of revenues under the Mughul administration.
• In 1699 the status of Calcutta was raised to that of presidency town and a Governor and council was appointed for
administration.
• The Collector was empowered to collect revenue, decide civil and criminal cases of Indian inhabitants.
• The Collector used to decide civil cases in a summary manner according to Indian custom and usages and in their absence,
he was to decide cases according to principles of natural justice and law of equity.
• The appeal from the Collector's court was heard by the Governor and council.
• The petty civil cases pertaining to Englishmen were heard by Collector and important civil cases were decide by the
Governor and council.
• The Collector was also responsible for the collection of Revenue from the natives and also empowered to hear revenue
cases and the appeals could be heard by Governor and council.
• The Collector was to decide criminal cases of the natives without jury and the important punishments imposed by him were
whipping, work on road, imprisonment and ne.
• This judicial system continued till 1727 when Mayor's court was established under the Charter of 1726 and this Judicial
system was replaced by a new judicial system.
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 CHARTER OF 1726
(Landmark Judicial Charter)
September 24, 1726
The charter of 1726 was issue by king George 1

REASONS:
As judges were laymen, they did not have adequate knowledge of English Law. So decided cases according to their own
common sense notion of justice.
With the growth in company's trade, the population of British settlements had increased considerably. Therefore, more cases
were coming to the Courts for adjudication. Therefore it was necessary to make large and ef cient judiciary or solid judicial
institution.
The judicial system in all the settlements of the East India Settlements was not uniform , it was not satisfactory , they had one
entity still the system of these together were very different which made it confusing and dif cult to manage.

Cases related to testamentary and intestate succession did not fall in the jurisdiction of any of the courts in the East India
Settlement. Due to the amounts present on the Indians, most of the workload fell on the Crown’s Privy Council. Therefore there
was requirement of powerful courts, as validity of documents should not be questioned.

PROVISIONS:
• Uniformity in all three presidencies ,new system will be established , old courts will be abolished.

• All the three presidency Bombay, Calcutta, madras was to to have a corporation comprising of one mayor and 9 alderman.

• The Mayor and 7 Aldermen were to be natural born British subjects while 2 Aldermen could be of subjects of Indian Princely
States friendly with Britain.

• Mayor was appointed for 1 year and after the expiry of term had to continue as an alderman.
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 • Alderman was appointed for life and in case of any vacancy the mayor and the remaining alderman would elect new alderman
from inhabitants of the town.

• New mayor was to be elected by outgoing mayor and the alderman.

• An alderman could be removed on some reasonable ground by the governor and council subject to an appeal to King in
council. Thus, the attempt was to make the corporation autonomous, free from the control of the executive. The governor and
council can dismiss but had no authority to appoint.

• Judicial power along with managing city was given to municipal corporation. And when mayor will exercise these judicial
power .

• The Mayor and Aldermen formed a Court of Record called 'MAYOR'S COURT". It was empowered to decide all civil cases. The
Mayor together with two other English Aldermen or a senior aldermen along with two other aldermen formed the quorum.

• The rst appeal within 14 days would go to governor and council. From where, further appeal lay with the King in council or
privy council in all matters involving 1000 pagodas or more.

• Court of record: It records all the proceedings and judgements for president purposes , it had the power to punish for
contempt.

• A sheriff was chosen annually by governor and council and functioned as police.

• English laws were applicable.

• The form of procedure in civil action was interesting. Court might issue warrant, bail might be allowed, defendant could be
detained in custody, he could be imprisoned till the judgement was satis ed, property could be seized and sold.

• CRIMINAL JURISDICTION: All the powers will be in the hand of governor and council, council members will be known as
justice of peace, this court will be called as a quarter session court. This court would be regulated 4 times a year . Trials were
held with the help of grand jury 12 members and pity jury 6 members .

• Examinations of evidences would be on oath , but it was not nalised that on which they will oath.

• Tailor made laws will be created as per the presidency.

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 CASE 1 : BOMBAY.

A hindu women of the shimpti caste married in very early age and became widow very soon, she had to face many problems for
her survival . At that time missionary act was going on and she became roman catholic . Her son was of 12 years old, and his
grandparents wanted their grandson to live with them as their daughter in law had became catholic , she was ousted from the
community , her child and her jewellery everything was taken by them .The woman led a suit against the Hindu relative before
the Mayor's court on the ground that they had unlawfully detained some jewels and her child and the court ordered to handover
the boy to his mother.The heads of the caste complained to the Governor who brought the matter before the council, for which
it considered that the court had no authority under the Charter of 1726 to determine the cases of the natives' caste relating to
their religion and the court was warned not to interfere in such cases.The court opposed the view of the Governor and council
on the ground that dispute before the court was not really religious and it had jurisdiction to decide it under the Charter. Due to
this there were several clashes between mayor and governor so this further went England.

CASE 2 :

An Arab merchant was coming to India who was found in a burning boat and he was rescued by some persons. The merchant
led a suit in the Mayor's court to recover the value of pearls alleged to have been extorted from him by the rescuers. The
rescuers or defendant was already charged under some other case and was acquitted by the governor but mayor reversed the
judgement and passed him in jail , after 14 days when matter again went to governor he again acquitted him , again and again
several clashes happened between mayor and governor which made it very much clear that independent judiciary cant exist in
this presidency.

CASE 3: MADRAS.

In Madras also the relation between the Governor in council and Mayor's court was not cordial and the dispute arose from the
oath. The Hindu witnesses were directed to take "Pagoda oath" OATH MADE ON MONEY instead of "Geeta oath". Many Hindu
witnesses opposed it and refused to take pagoda oath and the Mayor court imprisoned those who refused. DISPUTES ARISES.

CASE 4 : Naish an outgoing Mayor was re-elected but the Governor refused to allow him to take oath of of ce on the ground
that an outgoing Mayor could not be re-elected as per Charter of 1726 and ultimately another Mayor was elected.

THEREFORE RE -CONSTRUCTION OF CHARTER OF 1726 AS IT WAS NOT A SUCCESSFUL CHARTER.

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 CHARTER OF 1753
8th April 1753
King George 2
PROVISIONS:
1. The new Charter of 1753 was made applicable to the entire presidency town. New charter changed the method of
appointment of Mayor and Alderman.
2. Governor and Council got the power to appoint the aldermen as well as dismiss
3. Regarding selection of the Mayor the corporation selected the names of 2 people and Governor and Council selected one of
them as the Mayor every year.
4. This way Mayor became the puppet of the Governor and Council. This way Mayor as well as Aldermen becomes the
nominee of Government and Government got the Full Control of corporation .
5. Negative jurisdiction: People got power to neglect the court as it was necessary for both the parties to accept the
jurisdiction of the court.( it was a suicide for courts)
6. Oath was binded on conscience as it was cleared not to force anyone to oath on speci c thing, if hindu wants to oath on
Geeta let them.
7. This charter also created new court called court of request , kind of lower court in which cases are decided upto 5 pagodas
This Court was established to help poor Indian litigants who cannot afford the expenses of the Court. The Court weekly sat
thrice, 3 commissioners and was, managed by Commissioners between 8 to 24 in numbers. Every week new
commissioners .
8. Matters against governor and council can be taken to mayor court.
9. Privy council in England was the nal authority.
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