Judicial Reform In British India

Case Study Of Warren Hasting

Era (1772-85)

Introduction
Under the Mughals, the Diwan and Subah were used for
collecting and deciding the revenue and case related to the
lands, respectively. When in 1765, the Company was
granted the status Dewani, it got the liability of civil justice.
Time after time the responsibilities of the company
enhanced. Some crucial changed were put forward in
revenue system and with the changes in revenue system the
changes in civil justice were unavoidable. But the criminal
justice was the obligation of Nizamat to control it all over the
controlled region. So it was out of control for the company to
brought changes in it. But it was not considered by the
company they modified these laws time to time, when it was
needed (Jain, 1972). Till the middle of the 18th century, the
Company held under it only three presidency towns of
Calcutta, Madras and Bombay. As time passed, the company
expanded its political activities and brought new territories
surrounding the presidency towns under its control. This
territory came to be known as the moffusil. The first
territorial acquisition of the company consisted of Bengal,
Bihar and Orissa. Here the first adalat system was started in
1772. Warren Hastings introduced the new judicial
administration system as well as a revenue collection system
in the year 1772 It laid the Foundation of Adalat system
Braj Kumar Nehru MBE, ICS (4 September 1909 – 31
October 2001) was an Indian diplomat and Ambassador of
India to the United States (1961–1968).
[2]
He was the son of Brijlal Nehru and Rameshwari Nehru and
first cousin once removed of India's first prime minister
Jawaharlal Nehru.
After the East India Company carried the day in the Battle of Plassey, it got the
diwani rights (the right to adjudicate revenue and civil matters collect
revenue and keep the surplus); the company wanted that it needed a
homogenous and efficient system to collect revenue and administer justice
(Macaulay, Adam & Dickson, 1890). Warren Hasting played a crucial role in
the battle and impressed Robert Clive, the first GovernorGeneral of the
Presidency of Fort William in Bengal, who desired to become the British
Resident at Murshidabad, the capital of Bengal, in 1758. After quickly rising up
the ranks, in 1771, he was appointed the Governor of Calcutta (Johns, 1918).
When Warren Hasting became Governor of Bengal; administration of justice
was very fragile. It was about to demolish. The dual system was very shoddy
and disappointing. Judiciary had become the tool of oppression in the hands of
culprits. When Hasting came to know about that the judiciary had become
very fragile so for the profit of company and to free the inhabitants from the
oppression he propounded and modified the previous system (Gleig, 1841).

Warren Hastings hence commenced to make colossal changes in the

administration of justice. Warren Hastings understood that the impartial
justice is quite important for the strong administration of justice and for
collecting the revenue as well. He adopted some provisions for criminal and
civil courts and modified the system (Sen, 1997). One of the crucial
developments which took place was that the three presidencies Bengal,
Bombay, and Madras were divided into a number of districts for the
amelioration of administration. All in all, the coming of Impey to the office
proved very fructuous because he was a very intelligent Officer. The
establishment of Civil Procedure Code was one of the best achievements of

5854 | Shaista Gohar Judicial Reforms In British India Case Study Of Warren Hasting
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Impey, because it was for the time the law procedure was made easy that even
the illiterate could understand it (Macaulay, 1893).

Hastings’ Judicial Reforms

Warren Hastings gave much attention to the task of reform of judicial system.
He started various reforms by making the judiciary more and more effective.
There are four stages of his judicial plans.

The Judicial Plan 1772: First stage of Justice

Administration
The plan of 1772 was the first Anglo-Indian Code, which was devised by
Warren Hastings contained thirty-seven laws regarding civil and criminal
codes. It was made according to the indigenous laws of people because the
inhabitants were very accustomed to the native law. The main aim was to
eradicate the shortcomings of the local laws. Thus the area, where the new
devised laws had to be imposed, were divided into various districts, each
district had a head know as collector. He needed to be a Britishers. Mainly in
system the native laws were followed because they wanted to overcome all
the shortcomings of the lock laws. It had achieved that to great extent (Verma,
2018). Main merits of the system are discussed below.

Civil Justice: To solve the civil cases, containing; property, inheritance,

succession, caste, marriage, contracts, accounts etc the Mofussil dewani court
was established in each district . Cases would solve with accordance to the
laws of Hindu and Muslims separately. In the matters of Hindu, the collector
was helped by Pandit while in Muslims cases the Molvi did so. One could
appeal in Sadar Diwani Adalat in Sadar Dewani Adalat if the case exceeding Rs.
500. The Court contained Governor, President and other two members from
council helped by Diwan and Kanungos. This court was also modified time by
time (Parikh, 2012).

Criminal Justice: To solve all cases regarding crimes and misdemeanors,

Mofussil Faujdari Adalat was formed in each district. The court was headed by
collector and assisted by Qazi and two molvies, who had the knowledge of
Sharia. The court had the power to solve and punish the criminals; however, it
5855 | Shaista Gohar Judicial Reforms In British India Case Study Of Warren Hasting
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didn't have the power of death sentence. Cases regarding capital punishment
were to be solved in Sadar Nizamat Adalat with consultation of Nawab (Mittal,
2017).

Structure of Sadar Nizamat Adalat:

Daroga-i-Adalat: he must be an Indian, seconded by head Qazi, and three Molvies. This
was the court of appeals.

Revenue Administration: The whole plan of 1772 is known as Hasting's Reforms. The
boards at Murshidabad and Patna were put to an end and whole authority of revenue was
vested in newly created board of revenue in Calcutta. It contained Governor General and
other members from council. They had to meet two times in a week. They would discuss all
the matters regarding revenue. With the changes in revenue system, the treasury was also
shifted to Calcutta (Singh, 1994).

Miscellaneous Provisions: To eradicate the defects from the previous system, in open
courts every case had to be solved. All the records of cases would be saved. All the defective
laws and impositions were eradicated. The fragile justice was made very effective (Parikh,
2012).

Defects of the Plan- The over-centralization of powers in a single hand was the major
defect of this system. All the powers were given Collector, who was responsible for the
whole system single-handedly (Weitzman, 1929).

The Judicial Plan was only limited to Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Hastings made provisions for
Muslims and Hindus only, which was the biggest blunder. He should have made some
provisions for the other communities as well like, Christians, Sikhs and Parsi (Parikh,
2012). Though there was no proper way of communication to access everything. So due to
the weak supervision the officers misused their power to great extent. Another defect was
that, the English officers didn't even know about the indigenous laws and the native officers
deliberately misinterpreted the laws for their personal means. Therefore the system was
quite nebulous (Chaudhury, 2011).

The Judicial Plan 1774: Second Stage of Justice Administration

The office of Collector was abolished in1773.The Court of Directors took this
decision in England. New Plan was needed because the 1772 plan was
defective and fragile. A new Plan was founded in November 23, 1773, which
was implemented on January 1774 (Parikh, 2012). Various reforms were
brought forward regarding revenue, civil justice, and criminal cases. These
reforms are discussed below.
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Revenue: Collectors who were from English company, replaced by an
Indian officer known as Diwan and Amil. Mofussil Diwani Adalat was created
to collect revenues. The whole area of Bihar and Orrisa were divided into six
divisions. Calcutta, Burdwan, Murshidabad, Diniapur, Dacca and Patna were
the headquarters of those divisions. In each division, Provincial Council was
created, which consisted a Chief and four veteran servant of company. A
committee headed by two members from Councils and three other servant,
was established in Calcutta for collecting of revenue. Other courts were also
established for solving the minor disputes of farmers and other local
inhabitants (Verma, 2018).

Civil Justice: The process of appeal was making easier in the 2nd phase of
the reforms. However it was considerably more difficult in the 1st phase. All
cases, which were decided in Moffusil Adalat now, can be decided in the
Provincial courts irrespective of the value. Other provisions were also added
for appeal in Sadar Diwani Adalat (Mittal, 2017).

Criminal Reforms: The officers, who were working in Faujdari Adalats,

prohibited from holding another office or lands. They had to live in those
areas where they did their jobs. In the new system the inhabitants had the
authority to lodge complaints against the officers in the office of Governor
General, who then referred them to the Sadar Nizamat Adalat for further
investigation. The new system was quite good than the previous one although
it had some defects however It was modified in 1780 (Weitzman, 1929).

The Judicial Plan 1780: Third Stage of Justice

Administration
The demerits of 1774 judicial were came into forefront, when the conflict was
started between Supreme Court and Moffusil Adalat while deciding Patna
Case. As it was common in those days the Qazis and Molvies were solving the
matters in Provincial and Mofussil courts according to their own way. No heed
was paid to the English law (Singh, 1994).The Qazis and Molvies collected
evidence through their own procedure they did not follow any recognized
way. When the Supreme Court officers came to know about this, they passed a
judgment that they didn't follow the way which was proposed by Supreme

5857 | Shaista Gohar Judicial Reforms In British India Case Study Of Warren Hasting
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Court. Thus the case was solved but Supreme Court hurdle it. The Qazis and
Molvies were sent to jail for following their own way. This decision halted the
other officers for joining the Provincial courts (Mittal, 2017).

The system was modified by Hasting in 1780, when came to know about its
shortcomings. In the new Plan the Judiciary and Revenue was bifurcated from
each other and separate authorities were formed for it.

1- To solve all the disputes regarding Revenue.

2- To decide various disputes.

Under the new Plan, Provincial Councils had the authority to decide cases
regarding revenue. Other powers were taken from it (Weitzman, 1929).

Provincial Court of Diwani Adalat

Provincial Courts were established in each headquarter of the six units or
divisions. This court was headed by an officer, who was to be selected by
company. This officer was the superintendent of Diwani Adalat. He was to be
appointed by Governor General. Thrice a week the meeting of these courts
held. They would decide matters regarding: property, inheritance and other
agricultural matters. They had the power to decide cases upto Rs. 1000.These
courts did not have the power of appeal (Singh, 1994).

The plan of 1780 was way modified than the previous one. The foremost merit
was the separation of the Judiciary and executive. This separation of function
made the other functions quite easy therefore it was liked by everyone. But
the plan had some defects as well; the officers or Superintendent selected by
the company was not among the senior members of the company. Sometimes
the company might have chosen the native officer who might not have been
aware of English language (Mittal, 2017). The Governor-General had no time
to sit in the Sadar Nizamat Adalat to supervise the work of these courts.
Another defect was that the number of Courts in Bengal was only six, which
was very less for the vast area of Bengal. There should have been more courts
to control the whole area. Due to all these defects there were colossal chances
of oppression (Weitzman, 1929).

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Appointment of Impey at Sadar Diwani
Adalat: The Judicial system was modified time by time but it needed
swift changes under a strengthened supervision. Sadar Diwan Adalat had the
power of appleat jurisdiction and also had the authority of the supervision of
lower courts. But at that time the Sadar Diwani Adalat had various defects
which were confessed by Governor General (Singh, 1994). To overcome all
these defects Governor General appointed Impey as the Judge of Sadar
Nizamat Adalat, on the salary of his own will. Before the council had to decide
the decisions of courts but now all these power were given to Impey through
which they would metigate their burden. This decision proved very fruitful.
Impey came into office in 1780; he remained in office till 1782. After some
gape he was again appointed again on May 3, 1782 as a Judge of Sadar Dewani
Adalat. But due to conflict with Lord Councilor he again gives up the post. The
previous council again came into force when Impey give up his post (Mittal,
2017).

The appointment of Impey was very fructuous for the justice system in Indian.
Because justice during that time was very fragile and all the previous efforts
proved futile but with the joining of Impey the Justice was very modified. In
the fulfillment of his duty, he modified the civil courts at first. He propounded
13 articles which were later enhanced in 1782 to 95 articles. This was the first
Civil Procedure court of India (Singh, 1994).

Reforms by Impey :
For almost one year Impey remained in office during that little duration he
brought very crucial changes in the judicial setup. Impey mainly issued
regulations for Moffusil areas.

1. All the cases to be heard in open courts at the divisions. This

authority was give to Diwani Adalat. The law officers had only the
authority to make and implement law they did not have the authority
to give capital punishments. Earlier they had this power but after
Patna Case this provision was taken from it.
2. To overcome the defects the number of the Diwani Adalats was
enhanced from six to eighteen. These changes were very good for the
people far areas.
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 3. The composition of a civil procedure Code was one of best thing
which was brought by Impey. It was established for the first time in
INDIA. The Code came into force by the G.G and Council on 5 July
1781. Although the Code did not give good result, however the
procedure was quite easy that people knew about law very easily. All
the courts had to follow the specified procedure. There were 95
clauses included in this code.

4. The provisions regarding, inheritance, succession, caste, marriage etc

was still incomplete. But after coming of Impey to the office, he gave
a perfect procedure for it. The word inheritance was replaced by
succession. All the gaps were filled by Impey through implementing
new provisions.

5. The modification of Sadar Dewani Adalat was one of the vital

features of the plan. Union of power and Board of Superintendence
was amalgamated and it had give the power of applets jurisdiction.
All the inexperienced judges were removed from their posts because
they didn't have any knowledge of local law and language. This was
also a crucial step (Mittal, 2017).

The following functions were given to Sadar Diwani Adalat. (a) Cases
exceeding Rs. 1000 could appeal. (b) All the civil nature cases refered by G. G
can be decided here. (c) All the lower Courts were put under its authority.
They could also remove lower courts judges, if they had committed any crime
but the final decision of removal was in the hands of Governor General
(Parikh, 2012).

The Judicial Plan 1781: Fourth Stage of Justice

Administration
In Calcutta, the Sadar Nizamat Adalat was formed in 1772. In 1775, to avoid
conflict and interference with the jurisdiction of Supreme Court, it was shifted
to Murshidabad (Mittal, 2017). There Reza Khan, the Naib-Nazim, took the
charge of it. In 1776, Reza Khan adopted a plan for criminal justice under
which 23 Faujdari Adalats in all were formed in the units. But soon that
system became very loose, because the Collector or the Governor-General and
5860 | Shaista Gohar Judicial Reforms In British India Case Study Of Warren Hasting
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Council could not give enough time to have an efficacious control over these
courts; they could not give fair justice to the people. It was just like justice
delayed is justice denied. The accused had to remain in custody for years
before his trial was finalized. The conditions of prisons were very
autocratic (Singh, 1994). There were various shortcomings which
needed to be amended in that plan. The Muslim law of crimes was also very
defective; it was modified for time being the original laws were not followed
by anyone. When Hasting came to know it in 1781, he modified the previous
system and adopted a new set of laws, which was quite better than the
previous one (Parikh, 2012).

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Reforms in the Criminal Judicature
To make the justice process swift and to bring the criminals to trial, the
Mofussil Diwani Adalats Judges were appointed as Magistrates also. For some
time they remained devoid of any jurisdiction to utilize it. They were only
given the authority of sending criminals to nearest Faujdari Adalats for trails
with written accusations (Mittal, 2017).

Warren Hastings formed a separate unit at Calcutta, to have an effective

supervision over the trails of courts including the Sadar Adalat. This
department had received the overall details of all the cases monthly. The
Remembrance, an experienced member of the company had to work under
the supervision of Governor General. He had the charge of analyzing and to
prepare extract from the dispatched reports of the Magistrates and Court. But
the authority of this officer was not quite strong. The system did not prove to
be effective (Parikh, 2012). The Remembrance mainly depended on the
information that he was getting time to time from various courts. But it was
very defective for the justice systems. Because original information may be
concealed from the remembrance, the courts could manipulate him very
easily, because he relied on them. All these shortcomings needed to be
modified (Singh, 1994).
From 1780s onward some effective reforms were brought in. Like in 1782 the
number of Faujdari Adalats was reduced from twenty three to eighteen. While
in 1785, for more swift and efficacious administration of criminal justice, the
Magistrates were given the power to try small offences; but the Magistrates
did not have the power to give capital punishments like cutting of any hands
or any other limb of body, or killing of accused person or putting the criminals
behind the bars for more than 4 days or corporal punishment, all they powers
were not given to the Local Magistrates (Mittal, 2017). They didn't even have
the authority of punishing the criminals for petty offences; they had to send
them to Faujdari Adalat. They only had to decide that what would be the
suitable punishment for the accused (Weitzman, 1929).

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Conclusion
Warren Hastings judicial reforms have left a deep impact on the judiciary of
Pakistan. However, his reforms are not perfect. There are some defects in
those reforms. Appreciating his contributions, some of his reforms sound
quite good. Those reforms justify that he was not only a good administrator
but also a man of great mind. For eradicating the evil of the existing judicial
setup he introduced the method of trial and error and took some bold steps to
remove such defects which might fragile the system. He proved himself one of
the best servants of the Company because he worked hard during that time
when the system of company was very fragile. Various regulations were
implemented by him who made the system very best. While taking notice of
his flaws, one may notice that, in certain area he constituted criminal courts
which had various defects like the Muslim criminal law was very severe but he
could not modify it. One may think that he wanted not to touch the native laws
and it may be right. When the judiciary and empire was at the fragile state the
only person who strengthened it is no doubt Hasting.

References:
Chaudhuri, K. C. (2011). History of Modern India. New Central Book Agency.

Gleig, G. R. (1841). Memoirs of the life of The Right Honorable Warren

Hastings. Vol. II.

Jain, M. P. (1972). Outlines of Indian legal history. NM Tripathi.

Jones, M. E. M. (1918). Warren Hastings in Bengal, 1772-1774 (Vol. 9).

Clarendon Press.

Macaulay, T. B. M. B. (1893). Warren Hastings. Macmillan.

Macaulay, T. B. M. B., Adam, G. M., & Dickson, G. (1890). Warren
Hastings: An Essay. Copp, Clark Company.

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Era (1772-85)
Mittal, J. K. (2017). Indian Legal and Constitutional History.
Allahabad Law Agency.

Paranjape, N. V. (2006). Indian Legal and Constitutional History.

Central Law Agency.

Parikh, M. (2012). Tortious Libility for Environmental Harm: A Tale

of Judicial Craftmanship. Nirma ULJ, 2, 75.
Sen, N. (1997). Warren Hastings and British sovereign authority in
Bengal, 1774–80. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth
History, 25(1), 59-81.
Singh, M. (1994). British Revenue and Judicial Policies in India: A
Case Study of Deccan, 1818- 1826. Har-Anand Publications.
Verma, H. (2018). Concept and History of Judicial Independence in
India. Indian JL & Just., 9, 19.

Weitzman, S. (1929). Warren Hastings and Philip Francis (No. 56).

Manchester University
Press.

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Name : Sagar
Roll Number : 221201047

Subject : History

Submitted to :
Dr.Mahalingam sir

5865 | Shaista Gohar Judicial Reforms In British India Case Study Of Warren Hasting
Era (1772-85)