Administrative System of the Marathas c16.s1.2

c16.s1.2

Criminal cases were heard in the first instance by the Patil, a gentleman without much learning and hence unlikely to be familiar with the injunctions of the old Hindu law-givers like Manu and Yajnavalkya. But the Brahman Nyayadhish who heard appeals in both civil and criminal suits was as a matter of course well versed in the *shastras.* The Hazir Majalasis to hear final appeals perhaps met more often in the days of Shivaji and his immediate successors than during the Peshwa regime. And we very frequently come across two functionaries who seem to have silently slipped away from existence during the Peshwa days. These were the Sabha Naik or Judge President and the Mahaprashnika or Chief Interrogator whose duty appears to have been to examine and cross-examine the parties. Whether they were elected by their brother judges or nominated by the king we do not know. Perhaps an elderly member who commanded the respect of his co-villagers, assumed some sort of superiority over others as a matter of course and a younger member of the Panchayat perhaps volunteered to examine the parties in order to save his colleagues from that trouble.¹