Legal History Proposed on Judicial administration in madras

PROJECT PROPOSAL “A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATION IN MADRAS (1639-1726) AND THE MODERN JUDICIAL SYSTEM”

INTRODUCTION “The legal system of a country at a given time is not the creation of one man or of one day; it represents the cumulative fruit of the endeavour, experience, thoughtful planning and patient labour of a large number of people through generations.” India, being a common law country, derives most of its modern judicial framework from the British legal system. The root of the present judicial administrative system lies deep into the judicial administration in the past. The legal history of the past shows us the evolution, growth and development of legal systems in India. The Englishmen realizing a need of a sound judicial system, started their administrative process first with respect to the three presidency Towns, of which the first presidency town to be established by the British was the Madras Presidency. The independence of India naturally resulted in certain inevitable changes in the Structure of Judicial system in the country and also in Madras Judiciary system. This project is done to analyze and to make a comparative study on the development of judicial administration in Madras in 1639-1726 and the Modern Judicial system followed. By R.Kirubakar II year BA.LLB (Hons) Reg No: - BA0150022 Tamil Nadu National Law School, Tiruchirappalli-620009 Tamil Nadu Email Id: - [email protected]

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OBJECTIVES The main objectives of this project can be summed up in the following points:1. To know about the establishment of Madras Presidency and the Administration 2. 3. 4. 5.

of Justice by British. To understand about the evolution of choultry courts. To learn about the evolution of admiralty courts. To study about the establishment of Mayor’s court and sheriff’s courts To reveal about the crimes and punishments which existed in Madras Presidency town and to compare it with the present judicial system in Madras.

METHODOLOGY This project work is carried out by using descriptive, interpretative and comparative method of study between the judicial administration in the madras presidency town (1639-1725) and the present judicial system. Apart from this, the project is described and interpretated using few case studies. The researcher would use the comparative and descriptive method of doing this project which includes different sections and chapters. One would separate the period of Judicial Administration from 1639 to 1726 into Three Periods :-

 First Period - (1639-1665)  Second Period - (1665-1686)  Third Period - (1686-1726) And explain about the judicial administration in the pre independence era and then compare with Modern Judicial System followed in Madras. SOURCES This project is done with the help of both Primary and Secondary Sources. The Primary sources include Journals, Magazines and Newspapers which help the researcher in gathering information about the Judicial Administration and to reveal the crimes & punishments which existed during the British period in Madras Presidency and the Secondary sources like Reference Books, Published Articles and Web sources is used by the researcher to enrich the project with the comparative study through the 2

thoughts of few historians legal concepts & ideas. This project is also done with the help of web sources and Case studies which help the researcher in interpretating the judicial administration in Madras Presidency. BRIEF CONTENT Madras was founded by Francis Day in 1639 on a piece of land granted to him by a Hindu Raja. A fort named as Fort St.George was established and the Raja also authorized the company “to govern and dispose off the Government of Madras Patnam”. The legal system that existed in madras up to 1726 may be divided into three stages: First Stage (1639 to 1665):– The judicial system that existed during this stage was in absence of Systematic and regular administration of justice.  Second Stage (1665 to 1686):- This period saw the establishment of court of the Governor and council.  Third Stage (1686 – 1726):- This period saw the creation of two courts namely Admiralty Court and Mayor’s Court. No decisions were given for years due to lack of effective and expeditious means of communication. The Choultry Court was a native court presided by the village headman known as Adigar. This court would decide only petty civil and criminal matters. The charter issued to the company by King George I on the 24 th September, 1726, turned over a new leaf in the evolution of judicial institutions in the three Presidency towns including madras. It introduced uniformity of approach in each presidency towns. By virtue of Charter of Justice granted by the Letters Patent of 26 th day of December, 1800, a supreme court of judicature was created, abolishing the court of recorder. After the independence, each state including Madras had its own judiciary, which administers both union and state laws. Madras High Court

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At the apex of the state Judiciary is the Madras High Court. The high court of judicature at Madras was constituted as a court of record and it came to existence on the 15th day of August, 1862. It is not subject to the superintendence of any court or authority, though appeals from its decision may lie to the Supreme Court. After the independence and the adoption of the constitution on January 26, 1950, the Federal court was superseded by the Supreme Court of India. The state of Madras was bifurcated in 1953 under the Andhra State Act and a separate High Court of Andhra was established with jurisdiction. The madras high court hears appeals or revisions from the decisions of all subordinate courts, civil and criminal. In addition, it has original jurisdiction in matrimonial, company, and testamentary cases. A special jurisdiction was conferred on all High Courts by Article 226 of the Constitution, empowering them to prevent the infringement of fundamental rights of citizens and other rights, by issuing writs of habeaus corpus, quo-warranto, prohibition, certiorari, mandamus, or any other orders of directions. CONCLUSION The contributions of the British are so important that the very existence of our judiciary and legal system can be credited to them. Moderates leaders in India also had faith in the British sense of Justice and fair play. But the overall picture of the administration of justice in Madras was not very good in early stages. The system suffered from many drawbacks like absence of proper judicial system, Uncertainty of laws, severe punishments, lack of facilities in the jails and unfair trails. The establishment of High court of judicature at madras in 1862 and after the independence era under the Provisions of Indian legal codes established by the Constitution of India as aimed in the Fair and justifiable judicial administration in Madras.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 4

REFERENCE BOOKS 1. Chandra Bipin, History of Modern India, Orient Black Swan Private Limited, New Delhi, 2009. 2. Gandhi B.M , V.D.Kulshreshtha’s Landmarks in Indian Legal & Constitutional History, Lucknow, 2012. 3. Jain. M.P, Outlines of Indian Legal History, Lexis Nexis, Haryana, 2014. 4. Justice Rama Jois.M, Legal and Constitutional History of India, Universal Law Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi, 2014. 5. Keith.A.B, A Constitutional History of India, Low Price Publications, New Delhi, 2011. 6. Mahajan.V.D , Modern Indian History, S.Chand & Company Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi, 2014 7. Sastri NIlakanta, K.A, A history of South India: from prehistoric times to the fall of Vijayanagar. Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2002. 8. Sharma.S.D , Administration of Justice in Ancient India, Harman Publishing House, New Delhi, 1988 9. Singh.M.P, Outlines of Indian Legal & Constitutional History, Universal Law Publishing Co. Pvt.Ltd, New Delhi, 2006. 10. Sreenivasa Murthy.H.V, Elizabeth.V.S, History of India, Eastern Book Company, Lucknow, 2011. WEB SOURCES 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MadrasPresidency, accessed on 07 .Aug. 2016 at 12.30 pm 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judiciary_of_India, accessed on 07.Aug.2016 at 12.35 pm 3. http://allahabadhighcourt.in/event/TheIndianJudicialSystem_SSDhavan.pdf.html , accessed on 07.Aug.2016 at 1 pm.

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