24 May 2010

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Part 16 – Indian Legal History – Defects and Changes Made in 1793 Plan

Part 16 – Indian Legal History – Defects and Changes Made in 1793 Plan

Reality Views by sm –
Monday, May 24, 2010

Cornwallis left India after establishing the plan of 1793.
Cornwallis did not stay in India to see the actual implementation of plan of 1793.
After Cornwallis left Shore took the charge and became the Governor General



The Problems and Defects of Plan of 1793 –

Large volume of Cases and Pending Suits, which delayed the Justice.
Example – In 1795 the number of Pending suits in district Adalat in Burdwan was 30 thousand.

But this shows that British People gave power and confidence that yes Indians can also demand justice and in result increase of suits.

The good thing was that Collectors were aware about the problem that numbers of pending suits are increasing and it will destroy the purpose of Court and Justice System.
Same Was Happening in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa increase in filing of cases and increase in number of Pending suits.

In Revenue cases delay meant collection of revenue was affected.
In three provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa only 26 diwani adalats were established.
The jurisdiction of registers and munsiffs was very small.
There was need to increase the number of courts and judges but Shore did not increase, he and his team believed that already courts are more and this is temporary phase, but shore was wrong, as the plan of Cornwallis encouraged the more and more Indians to file the suits as courts were became accessible to Indians.

Regulation VIII of 1794 –

To decrease the work load of diwani adalats Regulation VIII made the decrees of the register final in all suits for money or personal property valuing up to Rs.25. But Diwani adalat got the discretionary power to revise the decision of registers.
An appeal had been provided to the provincial Courts of Appeal from registers in all cases of real property and in cases for personal property over Rs.25.

The Regulation XXXVI of 1795 lay down that appeals from the registers were to go to the district diwani adalats and not to the provincial courts of appeal.
The decisions of the district adalats were to be final in all such cases and no further appeal was to be sufficient for purpose of justice.

Only two appeals had been provided for from the decision of the munsiffs who decided cased up to Rs. 50.
First appeal – District Diwani Adalat
2ND appeal – Provincial court of appeal
But again this resulted in delay and in 1795 decisions of the District Diwani Adalats declared to be final in all such cases.

But after all these efforts the filing of suits and number of Pending suits kept increasing.

Because of financial matter Shore did not increase number of the courts and judges
Cornwallis had abolished Court fees so Poor can file cases and Appeals in 1793.

Shore thought that as there was no court fee people filed wrong cases; false suits .Thus government felt that imposition of court fees will limit the filing of wrong cases.

Thus Regulation of XXXVIII of 1795 again imposed court fees.

One anna in the rupee was to be paid by a plaintiff for filing suits before a munsiff.
Thus court fee was fixed according to the amount of suit.

Regulation of 1797 increased the court fees on suits, witnesses, exhibits and appeals.
This regulation converted the institution of court fees into stamp duties.

This again made justice costly for Indians, and kept poor Indians away from demanding justice.
This is even noted and written by white judges.
Many Indians started to think that justice is costly so do not demand justice.

On June 25, 1835 Lord Macaulay also criticized the levy of fees on institution of suits and at various stages in their progress.

In 1856 the second law commission suggested abolition of court fees but nothing changed and today in 2010 also we are following same.

In 1795 Company Government decided to introduce the same system of administration in the Banaras province.
Thus series of Regulation were passed on 27th March 1795.
The Banaras city was formed into a district and rest of the Banaras province was divided into three districts of Mirzapur, Gazipur and Jaunpur.
In Banaras Company saw that Brahims were treated as Gods so it was decided that no brahimin was to be punished with death penalty for any crime.



9 comments:

Samvedna May 25, 2010  

This is like studying:)..you must have real patience to research so much.

Vintage Obsession May 25, 2010  

wow , this is a lot of information which i am sure even the people whose day to day work deals with these things dont know either :)

R. Ramesh May 25, 2010  

buddy thanks ya:)

Dr. Tripat Mehta May 26, 2010  

quite informative :)

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sm,  May 26, 2010  

Samvedna,
thanks

sm,  May 26, 2010  

Vintage Obsession,
thanks

sm,  May 26, 2010  

R. Ramesh,
thanks

sm,  May 26, 2010  

Tripat "Prerna",
thanks

Poonam,  May 31, 2010  

quite informative :)