The case laws which led to changes in judicial system in india during the british rule

1. SRISHTI BANSAL
35713403817
BA LLB (H)
1ST
YEAR 2ND
SEMESTER
1773 REGULATING ACT
AND
THE FAMOUS CASE LAWS

2. Reasons behind 1773 Act
Territorial expansion
Corruption amongst the servants of the company
Lack of proper judicial administration
Lack of proper central authority
Deteriorating financial position of company
Company’s defeat in 1769 at hands of Hyder Ali
Terrible famine in Bengal

3. Salient features of Act
Election for directors
Control over correspondence
Appointment of Governor General and Council
Establishment of Supreme Court of Judicature

4. Supreme Court of Judicature
Section 13 of the Act empowered the establishment of
Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William Calcutta
The court consisted of Chief Justice and three other
judges being barristers of not less than five years standing
to be appointed by His Majesty
The qualification laid down for appointment were that only
barristers of not less than five year standing could be
appointed as judges

5. Jurisdiction of Supreme Court
Supreme court was given very wide jurisdiction covering
every possible type of litigations going on the Indian courts
those days. The different type of Jurisdiction covered were :
 Civil Jurisdiction
 Criminal Jurisdiction
 Admiralty Jurisdiction
 Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction
 Equality Jurisdiction
 Writ Jurisdiction

6. Nand Kumar Case ( A judicial murder)
 Raja Nand Kumar he was residing in Bengal and was big Zamindar
 In March, 1775 he laid a letter before the council member with charging
allegations against Warren Hastings
 According to the letter, Warren Hastings received bribe from former
Nawab wife Munni Begum for granting a Zamindari
 Council members arranged meetings to issue summons to Nand Kumar
to attend before council to produce vouchers in support of his charges
of bribery against Hasting’s
 With the summons of council Nand Kumar produced a letter in person
which was written to him by Munni Begum
 The council majority decided that Hasting received a sum of Rs.
3,45,105 and asked him to return the money to the Company’s treasury
 Nand Kumar was suddenly arrested at the instances of a Calcutta
merchant Mohan Das on charge of forgery

7.  He was put on trail before the Supreme Court presided over by Sir Elijah
Impey
The trial began on 7th
June 1775 and continued for a period of eight days
Every judge of the Supreme Court cross examined the defence witness due to
which the whole defence of Nand Kumar collapsed
On the basis of Mohan Das evidence, the verdict of guilty was returned by the
jury and Raja Nand Kumar was condemned to death
After the trail when Nand Kumar was held guilty by the court he filed an
application for granting leave to appeal to the King- In- Council but the court
rejected his application
Nand Kumar committed the crime of forgery five years ago before the
establishment of Supreme Court
Neither under Hindu law nor under Mohammedan law was forgery regarded as
capital crime
The death sentence was duly executed on 5th
August 1775

8. PATNA CASE 1777-1779
• Shahbaz Beg Khan native of Kabul came to India and settled in Patna
• He married Nadirah Begum and acquired a large amount of money
while in the service of company
• He had no issue and invited Behdar Beg to reside with him with the
intention to adopt him but before he could do it, he died in 1776
• Behdar Beg took the first step and filed a suit against Begum in the Patna
Provincial Council for getting right over the property
• In the Provincial Court the case placed before the Mohammedan law
officers The officers after full hearing reported that gift deeds were
forged documents and no gift was made in favour of Nadirah Begum and
also reported that no one could be adopted under Muslim Law
• Nadirah Begum was dissatisfied and filed an appeal before Sadar
Diwani Adalat at Calcutta
• With indifferent approach of the court she filed a suit in the Supreme
Court
• The Supreme Court issued order to arrest Behdar Beg, Qazi and Mufti

9. • The Supreme Court decided that the documents were genuine and that Qazi and
Mufti did not act in good faith
•The court awarded the damages of Rs. 30,000 in favour of Nadirah Begum and
the law officers were imprisoned
•The whole case was bitterly criticised on the grounds that which Behdar Beg and
law officers were subjected to the jurisdiction of the Supreme court.
•The Supreme Court justified his jurisdiction over Behdar Beg as a farmer and
paying revenue to the company
•Both the parties were Muslims to which the Mohammedan law of inheritance
was to apply it was purely a matter of personal law to Mohammedans.
•There were no written agreements between the parties to submit the case to the
Supreme Court for a decision

10. Cossijurah Case
 Raja Sunder Naraine zamindar of Cossijurah took a very big amount of
loan from Kasinath the financer of Calcutta
 The loan remained unpaid for considerably long time consequently
Kasinath brought a suit against in the zamindar in the Supreme Court
 The Supreme Court issued orders to arrest zamindar and he went
underground to avoid his arrest
 The collector of Midnapur informed the Governor General due to the
zamindar absence the revenue collection was suffering
 Based on the advices of Advocate General, Government the directed the
zamindar not to attend before the court
 Governor General also stated that no zamindar was subject to the
jurisdiction of the court
 The sheriff of Calcutta with some forces was sent by the court to execute
the orders of Supreme Court and they arrested zamindar also

11.  On hearing about this incident the Governor General - in - Council also
sent a small forces to arrest sheriff and his party and release zamindar from
arrest
The Governor General’s forces arrested the sheriff and his party and they
were released afterwards
The judges were angry and felt insulted
However, the court took an action against North Naylor Advocate
General, on the plea that the wrongly advised the Governor General for
defying the orders of the court and he was tried and sent jail

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