Administrative System of the Marathas c19.s5: 14. Elphinstone's Strictures
Administrative System of the Marathas c19.s5
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14. Elphinstone's Strictures
c19.s5.1
Elphinstone says, "The judicial system seems to have been very imperfect. There was no regular administration of justice : no certain means of filing a suit : and no fixed rule of proceeding after it had been filed. It rested with the officer of Government applied to, to receive a complaint or to neglect it altogether. The reception of your appeal from his injustice, equally depended on the arbitrary will of his superior. The other occupations of these officers rendered it difficult for them to attend to judicial affairs, even if well disposed, and these occupations increasing with the rank of the officer, the PAISHWA (or the minister) who was the mainspring of the whole machine, must have been nearly inaccessible to all men and entirely so to the poor." 23 Perfection of course cannot be claimed for the Maratha institutions or for any human institution in the world—there would have been no room for evolution had everything been perfect. But the observations of the great historian, to say the least, do not touch the heart of things. No doubt the Kamavisdars and Mamlatdars had other works to do. But their judicial duties mainly consisted in appointing a Panchayat and confirming its decision. Their work was more of supervision than of direct participation in the administration of justice. Moreover, there were provincial courts under the District Nyayadhish in important towns. If every one of these officers refused to receive a complaint, the plaintiff could still approach the Nyayadhish or chief justice at Poona, and the Peshwa himself. The chief court at Poona had always been put under a brilliant set of scholars and independent judges like Ram Shastri and his successors from 1760 downwards to the time of Baji Rao Raghunath, when Balkrishna Shastri Tokekar held that important office. The Peshwa was not at all inaccessible to his subjects, rich or poor. The students of old documents know well how many of these watan patras and nivad patras begin with the customary clause,—"you came to the Swami at such and such a place and complained to him, etc."
c19.s5.2
²³ Elphinstone's Report, p. 65.
c19.s5.3
The Peshwas went out on tour every year and received complaints and punished offenders. In the month of Rabilaval of San Ihide Arbain Maya wa Alf only (1740-41) Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao visited no less than eleven places (Pali, and some neighbouring forts and villages Parli, Vadvathar, Poona, Garade, Pargaon, Bhuinj and Satara).²⁴ Nor was this journey of exceptional length. Similar tours were made almost every year if not every month. Even the worthless Baji Rao Raghunath used to go out on these tours and on one occasion he punished some miscreants.²⁵ The Maratha princes were always accessible even to the poorest of their subjects—and Broughton, by no means an admirer of things Maratha, was struck with the ease and informality with which Daulat Rao Sindhia could be approached even while on an expedition by the seekers of justice.²⁶
c19.s5.4
²⁴ P. D., Vol. II, p. 238.
c19.s5.5
²⁵ See letters of Parashram Bhat and Malhar Ramchandra Kulkarni to Rajashri Nanaji. Rajwade, Sources of Maratha History, Vol. X, p. 398.
c19.s5.6
²⁶ Broughton, Letters from a Maratha Camp.