A History of the Mahrattas v2.c59.42

v2.c59.42

¹ [Adālat (Udalat), from adl, ‘doing justice,’ is an Arabic word signifying ‘a Court of Justice.’ Under the Mughal Government there had been three such courts, viz. Nizāmat Adālat, or chief criminal court; Dīwānī Adālat, or civil court, and Faujdārī Adālat, or police court. In 1793 regular courts were established in the East India Company’s territories, under the title of Sadr Adālat, which became the chief court of appeal in each Presidency. This Court had a criminal side, which in Bombay and Madras was termed Sadr Faujdārī Adālat, and a civil side which was similarly styled Sadr Dīwānī Adālat. These Courts were originally located at Surat, but were transferred to Bombay in 1827, and all cases decided by inferior tribunals outside the limits of Bombay Town and Island were referred to them. The Sadr Dīwānī Adālat had no original jurisdiction, but its decisions were final except in suits regarding property worth more than Rs. 10,000, when an appeal lay to His Majesty in Council. The Sadr Faujdārī Adālat was vested with the superintendence of criminal and police matters in all parts of the Presidency, excepting the Town of Bombay, and with power to revise all trials held by lower courts outside Bombay Island. In 1823 a Supreme Court was established in Bombay, and was vested with civil, criminal, equity, admiralty and ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the Island of Bombay and the factories subordinate to it; but it had no jurisdiction over the ordinary administration of justice in the rest of the Presidency, which continued to be performed by the Sadr Adālat on its civil and criminal sides. Hence arose constant and sometimes acute friction, which continued until August 6, 1861, when an Act of Parliament was passed abolishing the Supreme Court and the Sadr Adālat and establishing in their place the High Court, vested with the entire jurisdiction hitherto wielded by the two former. Letters Patent were issued on June 26, 1862, and in August of that year the High Court of Bombay was formally opened. (B.C.G., ii. 223-6; Yule’s Hobson-Jobson, ed. Crooke, 1903.)]