Indian Legal and constitutional History Chapter of 1600

East India Company

 Indians real legal history started with the arrival of East India
Company in the year 1600.
 The East India Company, with its official title as" THE GOVERNOR
AND COMPANY OF MERCHANTS OF LONDON TRADING INTO EAST
INDIES" was incorporated in England on 31st DECEMBER 1600, by a
Charter of Queen Elizabeth which settled its constitution, powers
and privileges.
 The company was to have a life span of 15 years.
 The charter could be revoked earlier by the Crown on two year's of
notice if trade carried by the company did not appear to be
profitable.
 The Company was to enjoy an exclusive trading right.
 No British Subject was permitted to carry on any trade within this
area without a license from the Company.
 Unauthorized British trader were liable to forfeiture of their
merchandise and ships.
 The affairs of the Company were to be conducted on democratic
lines.
 All of its member's were to form a General Court.
 All these member's [General Court] was to elect annually the
"Court of directors" consisting of a Governor and 24 directors for
managing the company affairs.
 The Governor and the director's were to hold office for the one
year.
 The General Court could remove any of them before the expiry of
his
term.
 Can elect a new person to fill the vacancy for the remaining year.

Legislative Power
 The charter authorized the company, in its General Court, to make.
ordain and constitute laws, orders and constitutions for the good
government of itself, its servant and for the better advancement
and continuance of its trade and traffic.
 The laws and punishments. however, were to be reasonable and
were not to be repugnant to the laws or customs of England.
 The legislative power thus conferred on the company was very
limited and restricted in scope and character.
 The punishment s imposed for infringement of laws could only be
fines and forfeitures and imprisonment: No harsher punishments
such as capital sentence could be prescribed and thus serious
crimes, like murder etc. could not be dealt with by the company
law's.
 The charter made no reference for the governance of any territory.
Thus, no territorial power's were given to company.

King’s Commission : For voyages

 The company soon found that its legislative power was inadequate
in practice for maintaining discipline amongst its servants while on
long voyages.
 To meet the situation, the company invoked the Crown's
prerogative and used to secure from it a commission to
commander-in-chief [C-I-C] of each voyage separately,
empowering him to inflict punishments for capital offences, such
as murder or mutiny, and to put into execution the law called "the
law martial".
 The first commission was issued by Queen Elizabeth on 24th
January 1601 to Captain Lancaster for the first voyage.

Power to issue Commission granted to the Company

  The practice of granting commission for each voyage appeared to
be difficult. Thus, king James -1 on 14TH December, 1615
conferred on the Company a general power to issue such
commission to its captains.
 Later on, 4th February 1623 James -1 granted to the Company the
power of issuing commission to any of its Presidents or chief
officers in its settlements authorizing him to punish offences
committed on land by British servants.
 At that time verdict must be found by a jury of twelve Company's
servants.

Surat Factory – Part 1

 After landing on the Indian soil, the primary task before the
company was to find out a suitable place to carry on its trade well.
The company needed to establish a few factories.
Q.) What is factory?
Ans.) A factory was a place consisting of offices, residences for
company's employees and warehouses for storage of goods.

 The company selected Surat as the suitable place as a center for its
trade and establishing a factory.
 At that time Surat was an important commercial center and a
populous town within the Moghul Empire. It was a good international
port as from there thousands of Muslim pilgrims sailed every year to
holy places in Arabia.
 Portuguese were already in occupation and they could not tolerate
any interference in their commercial activities by the British and in
1612 two clashed and Portuguese were finally routed out from this
trading center. •
 Thus, Surat was the first place where the Company established its
factory in with the permission of local Mughal Governor.
 Sir Thomas Roe’s Visit – Part 2
1. Who was Sir Thomas Roe?
 He was English diplomat and author. Roe's voyages ranged from
Central America to India; as ambassador, he represented England
in the Mughal Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Holy Roman
Empire.
 After establishing factory at Surat with permission of Local Moghul
Governor. The Company felt that to lend permanency to their
Surat Establishment and not to depend on Local Moghul Governor
favours.
 The King of England, James -1, Sent Sir Thomas Roe to India in
1615 to secure certain allowances from the Moghul Emperor.
 The Moghul Emperor who issued a firman granting certain
facilities to the Englishmen.

Q.) What Facilities were granted?

1.) They were allowed to trade and establish a factory at Surat in a hired
houses.
2.) They were allowed to live in accordance with their own laws and
religion without any local interference
3.) The disputes amongst the Englishmen were to be settled by their
own
4.) The disputes between the Englishmen and the natives were to be
settled by the local native authorities
 British Settlement at Madras (1639 – 1726)
 Settlement in Madras:-
1) Under Chief factory of Surat. The Company had a factory at
"Masulipattam" also known as Madraspatnam.
2) In Year 1639. Francis Day acquired a piece land from Hindu Raja of
Chandragiri to construct a fortified English factory on a strip of
land.
3) This Fortified factory was named as Fort St. George. The other
Europeans and Englishmen lived inside it.
4) The Settlement of Fortified factory empowered to govern
Madraspatnam a small village near it.
5) The Fortified settlement came to be known as the "White Town".
On other hand, nearly villages inhabited by local population
(Natives) was called “Black Town”.
6) The Entire territory of White & Black town developed into the city
of Madras.

 Administrative Setup:
1) The administrative setup of Madras was small and subordinated
to presidency of Surat.
2) The Madras got status of an Agency. Therefore, its
Administrative Head was called the "Agent".
3) He administered the settlements with the help of Council.
4) The affairs of the company were commercial in nature.

 Judicial System in Madras:

1) Agent & Council used to dispense cases in White Town.
2) Adigar was acting as judge for natives in both criminal and civil
cases.
3) Serious criminal cases were referred to company in England.
 Administration of justice in Madras

Madras was the first presidency town to be established by the British.

The administration of justice in the town of Madras before 1726
evolved in three stages:-

1639---1665(foundation of Madras)

1665---1686(establishment of court of Governor)

1686---1726(creation of Admirality Court and Mayors

Court)

 First period(1639—1665)--- it began with the foundation of

Madras in 1639 and continued up to 1665.
 Mr. Francis day acquired a piece of land from a Hindu ruler and
founded Madras in 1639. To construct a factory named as fort St.
George. This fort was inhabited by the Europeans and the British
servants of company and was known as white town.
 Small village grow in size and was called as black town inhabited
by Indians. Black town and white town later came jointly to be
known as madras separate provisions were made for the
administration of justice in white town and black town.
 Madras was given the status of agency and its administrative head
was called as agent.
 In white town... the agent and the council decided both civil and
criminal cases.
 The powers of the court were vague and indefinite hence the
efficient administration of justice could not be expected.
 On several times the causes were referred to London for advice
from the authorities of the company, because they were not sure
about their powers and jurisdiction.
 In black town.—the company under obligation to administer
justice in Madras patnam could not start any judicial tribunal
during this period, and left the traditional system to continue.
 The old Choultry court administered justice in the black town.
 The Adigar the village headman, sat in the Choultry court and
decided petty civil cases and small breaches of peace. In serious
cases reference was made to raja of the place

 Second period---(1666-1686)—Charter of 1661 conferred

extensive judicial power on the governor and council of a
settlement.
 Status of agent to governor was raised. This was necessary as
by the charter of 1661 judicial power was vested in the
Governor and not agent.
 Law was made applicable to Indian settlement by the charter
of 1661.
 The council in 1678 resolved that court of governor and council
should sit more regularly and would administer justice in all
cases civil and criminal according to laws of England. Governor
and council were designated as high court sit on two days a
week and decided cases with the help of a jury of 12 English
 men.
 Choultry court was re-organised consisted of companys
servants, sit twice a week and decided petty offences, matters
of peace and civil cases up to 50 pagoda .from the decisions of
this court an appeal could be filed in the high court i.e, the
Governor and the councils court during this period hierarchy of
courts came into existence in madras i.e, superior court and
lower court their jurisdictions were outlined the lower court
Choultry court could decide small cases and all other cases and
appeals from the lower court were to be heard by the upper
court with the help of jury.

 Third period—(1686-1726)—Admiralty court was established,

authorised to hear and determine all cases and thus court of
governor and council ceased to exercise judicial function.
 Admiralty court functioned up to 1704 and jurisdiction was
taken by Governor and council of Mayors court.
 Charter of 1687 created another court known as Mayors court
at Madras, consisted of Mayor and 12 aldermen .Mayor was
always English man. Mayor and two Alderman sat 2 days a week
,decided criminal cases on the bases of laws enacted by the
company. Mayors court also consisted of an officer known as
recorder who had knowledge of law at the end of 1704 3
courts were there---
 Choultry court, mayors court and the court of Governor and
council. In 1727 the Mayors court at madras was established this
court was different from the existing Mayors court of 1687 which
was companys court. While the court of 1726 was a kings court
established under royal charter.