Mughal Administration c10.s3: § 3. Qazis and their work.
Mughal Administration c10.s3
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§ 3. Qazis and their work.
c10.s3.1
Every provincial capital had its *qāzi*, appointed by the Supreme *Qāzi* of the Empire (the *Qāzi-ul-quzāt*) ; but there were no lower or primary courts under the former, and therefore no provincial court of appeal. A *qāzi* was also posted to every town and most of the villages with a Muhammadan population and large enough to be classed as *qasbas*. The other villages had no *qāzi* of their own, but any plaintiff living in them, if he was sufficiently rich and enterprising, could carry his suit to the *qazi* of the neighbouring town in whose jurisdiction they lay.
c10.s3.2
As the provincial *qāzi*’s jurisdiction was very vast and he had no assistant or deputy legally competent to share his burden, only a small part of the disputes in the provinces could be tried by him. The Indian villager in the Mughal empire was denied the greatest pleasure of his life in our own times, viz., facility for civil litigation with Government courts of first instance close at his doors and an abundance of courts of appeal rising up to the High Court at the capital.
c10.s3.3
Men had, therefore, to settle their differences locally, by appeal to the caste courts and local juries (called *panchayets* in North India and *mahazars* in the Deccan), the arbitration of an impartial umpire (*salis*), or by a resort to force.