[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [Administrative System of the Marathas](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sen-1923) › c19.s3.t6.22 # Administrative System of the Marathas c19.s3.t6.22 Administrative System of the Marathas c19.s3.t6.22 - **Language:** English ### [c19.s3.t6.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sen-1923.c19.s3.t6.22) The procedure was, of course, informal, but that was not because the parties concerned were near relatives of the Peshwa. Even the procedure of village Panchayets were extremely informal. Sometimes Ram Shastri was interviewed in his own house in private. Sometimes he consulted a common friend of the disputants; but on the whole he conducted the business with firmness and with an attitude of strict justice. In fact Ram Shastri was not the person to deviate from the path of justice for the sake of any man in the world. And Ram Shastri was not the only Nyayadhish famous for uprightness in Maratha History. European observers cared more for form and procedure and hard and fast rules. The absence of these led them to pass sweeping remarks on the judicial system of the Marathas. Even an acute observer like Elphinstone could not rise above this ordinary prejudice. Not that the rich and powerful could not buy justice sometimes, but that was by no means the general rule; we find high officials punished for misdemeanours, and their watans and inams attached for liquidation of debts. Powerful Sardars, however, could not be brought under law. This was the bane of feudalism, till then prevailing in European countries too. So far as the European critics of the Maratha system are concerned, it was a difference of ideals more than anything else that shocked them so much. - [Previous: c19.s3.t6.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sen-1923.c19.s3.t6.21) - [Next: c19.s4.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sen-1923.c19.s4.1) - [Up: c19.s3.t6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sen-1923.c19.s3.t6) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sen-1923.c19.s3.t6.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.sen-1923.c19.s3.t6.22) · Pramāṇa