Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c45.24

c45.24

§ 328. We have already seen that the king by himself was not allowed to hear cases.² He heard cases sitting in his Council which included the Chief Justice. These were cases which went on appeal to him as the highest court of appeal³. This is indicated by the authorities quoted below, and still more clearly by the case decided by King Yaśaskara noted in the Rājatarangiṇī (Ch. VI). The appellant had lost his case in all the lower courts and now he appealed from the judgment of the Justices to King Yaśaskara. He heard it in Council along with the judges of the capital who had already heard the matter. The practice of the king hearing original cases must have been given up very early as there is scanty evidence showing that it was ever done in post-Vedic times.