The Governor Generalship of Lord Cornwallis which extended from 1786 to creative

constitutes a very remarkable and a highly creative period in Indian Legal History.

He introduced for the first time the principle of administration according to law. The
Adalat System left behind by him won praise and encomium from all quarters. The
system introduced envisaged a division of revenue and judicial functions and their
vesting in distinct functionaries. Cornwallis introduced changes in the judicial system
thrice: first, in 1787; then in 1790 and, finally, in 1793. By the time he left India, he
had thoroughly reorganized the judicial system, both civil and criminal, in Bengal,
Bihar and Orissa and placed it on an entirely new basis. He introduced for the first
time the principle of administration according to law. The Adalat system left behind
by him won praise and encomium. It enjoyed such a high place in the esteem of the
people as well as the administrators that it was adopted as the model for the judicial
systems introduced later in the Provinces of Madras and Bombay.

Cornwallis received critical assistance from others in his effort to introduce legal
reforms. William Jones, an expert on languages, translated existing Hindu and
Muslim penal codes into English so that they could be evaluated and applied by
English-speaking judges. Cornwallis began in 1787 by giving limited criminal judicial
powers to the company’s revenue collectors, who already also served as civil
magistrates. He also required them to report regularly on detention times and
sentences given. In 1790 the company took over the administration of justice from
the Nawab, and Cornwallis introduced a system of circuit courts with a superior
Judges were drawn from the company’s European employees. These reforms also
included changes to the penal codes to begin harmonizing the different codes then
in use. By the time of his departure in 1793 his work on the penal code, known in
India as the Cornwallis Code, was substantially complete. One consequence of the
Cornwallis Code was that it, in effect, institutionalized racism in the legal system.
Cornwallis, in a manner not uncommon at the time, believed that well-bred
gentlemen of European extraction were superior to others, including those that were
the product of mixed relationships in India. Of the latter, he wrote “as on account of
their colour & extraction they are considered in this country as inferior to Europeans,
I am of opinion that those of them who possess the best abilities could not
command that authority and respect which is necessary in the due discharge of the
duty of an officer.” In 1791 he issued an order that “No person, the son of a Native
Indian, shall henceforward be appointed by this Court to Employment in the Civil,
Military, or Marine Service of the Company.” Cornwallis’s biographers, the Wick wires,
also observe that this institutionalization of the British as an elite class simply added
another layer on top of the complex status hierarchy of caste and religion that
existed in India at the time. Cornwallis could not have formalized these policies
without the (tacit or explicit) agreement of the company’s directors and employees.
Cornwallis’s attitude toward the lower classes did, however, include a benevolent and
somewhat paternalistic desire to improve their condition. He introduced legislation
to protect native weavers who were sometimes forced into working at starvation
wages by unscrupulous company employees, outlawed child slavery, and established
in 1791 a Sanskrit college for Hindus that is now the Government Sanskrit College in
Benares. He also established a mint in Calcutta that, in addition to benefiting the
poor by providing a reliable standard currency, was a forerunner India’s modern
currency.

THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM OF 1787

The judicial scheme of 1781, introduced during Warren Hastings’s Governor-
Generalship, envisaged a division of revenue and judicial functions and their vesting
in distinct functionaries. The court of directors on 12th April 1786 directed the
Cornwallis to vest in one person the revenue, judicial, and magisterial functions.
Cornwallis followed the ordered and introduced plan of 1787. In this plan Cornwallis
increased the salaries of collectors.

2nd He reduced the number of Diwani districts from 36 to 23 and this made it
possible to increase the salaries of collectors. The scheme was introduced through 2
Regulations.

First Regulation dealt with Revenue Administration and it was introduced on 8th June
1787. Second Regulation dealt with administration of justice and it was enacted on
27 June 1787. In each district a company’s English covenanted servant was appointed
as collector who will collect revenue as well as will decide the all cases relating to
revenue. Collector also worked as Judge in the district Mofussil Diwani Adalat to
decide civil cases, succession cases and land related cases like boundaries etc.

Revenue Court was known as mal Adalat .Appeals from mal Adalat went to the Board
of Revenue at Calcutta. And it finally went to the Governor General.

Appeals in the cases where matters more than Rs. 1000/- went to the Sadar Diwani
Adalat, where Governor General and council handled the cases.

Appeal from Sadar Diwani Adalat went to the King in Council.

In each Adalat registrar was appointed as a subordinate officer to help collectors.

Registrar was given power to handle decide cases up to rupees 200 and orders
passed by him became valid when it were signed by the judge of Mofussil Adalat.

As a magistrate collector was authorized to try and arrest criminals in petty offences.
Court that met in Calcutta and had the power of review over circuit court decisions.

Defects:
The magistrate got power to hear the cases against the Englishmen who committed
crimes against Indians, in this case magistrate made inquiry and he felt that there is
ground for trial, he would send the Englishman accused to the Calcutta for trial and if
Indian complainant was poor, the government paid all the expenses of travelling to
Calcutta. As magistrate, the collector was to arrest criminals and try and punish petty
offences by corporal punishment not exceeding 15 strokes, or imprisonment not
exceeding 15 days.

All the Europeans, who were not British subject, were placed on the same footing as
the Indians and were made amenable to the local fozdari adalats. The scheme of
1787 was a retro step, a swinging back of the pendulum, as regards the
administration of civil justice. In 1781, a progressive step had been taken by way of
effecting separation between judicial and executive functions, but this remarkable
achievement was annulled in 1787 when justice was made subservient to the needs
of revenue collection.

THE JUDICAIL SYSTEM OF 1790

It was also called as the Scheme of Criminal Judicature. This scheme had three limbs.
At the lowest rung of the ladder were the magistrates. Above them were the Circuits
and the ultimate criminal court was the Sadar Nizamat Adalat. Everything was
controlled by Nawab Reza Khan and who was not answerable to anyone. The salaries
of the criminal court judges were very low which encouraged them to get involved in
the corruption.

Low salaried kept honest and educated people away from this job and every corrupt
man wanted to become the criminal court judge. Fozdari adalats did not give fast
justice, it delayed the justice. Delayed justice encourages criminals to do more
crimes. As there existed no fear from the law.

Cornwallis wanted to reform all this and introduced the new scheme on 3rd
December 1790.

Main Features of the scheme of 1790:

1. Criminal justice system – transferred to English servants from Muslim law officers.

2. Muslim law officers became advisors to the court. Thus criminal cases could be
decided quickly.

3. Districts got the magistrates, above them were Courts of Circuit and above them
was Sadar Nizamat Adalat.
4. Sadar Nizamat Adalat was shifted to Calcutta from Murshidabad and Nawab was
divested of his control over the adalat.

5. In Sadar Adalat Governor General and council members sat as judges and Muslim
law officers helped them to understand the Muslim law.

6. Mofussil Fozdari adalats were abolished and on their place four court of circuits
were established.

7. All districts in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa were arranged into four divisions of Patna,
Calcutta, Murshidabad and Dacca.

8. Court of circuit was a moving court and it travelled from district to district in the
given division.

9. Court of Circuit consisted of 2 companies covenanted servants and Muslim law

officers help them.

The new criminal judicial system was inaugurated on January 1, 1791 and office of
remembrance was abolished which was created in the time of Warren Hastings.

The salaries of the criminal court judges were increased and first time Governor
General took the complete control of criminal justice system Bengal, Bihar and
Orissa.

In 1792, company government sanctioned small sum as a payment to the

prosecutors and witnesses who spent the days in court of circuit for their journey to
attend the trials.

The criminals who completed the punishment, when came out of jail they were paid
money to maintain themselves for a month.

Defects:
In due course of time, Cornwallis came to realise that there was no class of men who
the government should watch with greater care and vigilance, and on whom the
Regulations should have stricter control than the collectors. With time the work load
court of circuits increase.

There was no provision as such to supervise the collectors, who got unlimited
powers. Even the prosecution witness had to come twice, once when the magistrate
held an inquiry at the time of arrest of the accused and once again when the trial was
held by the Circuit Courts. This thus caused a lot of inconvenience on the poor
people, and also increased load for the Circuit Courts.
Cornwallis understood the defects of the above schemes and He introduced the plan
of 1793.

THE JUDICAIL SYSTEM OF 1793

The Scheme of 1793 was based on the following postulates:

The supreme power should divest itself of all interference in the sphere of
administration of justice except in the last resort as a court of appeal. The collector
was to be divested of judicial power not only in civil but even in revenue cases.

In May 1793, the Cornwallis code emerged as a legal code, representing a

compilation of fort eight regulations. Drafter by Sir George Barlow (1762- 1864), it
included measures covering both civil and criminal law. In Bengal, the code provided
for the Governor-in Council to form both the Sadar Diwani Adalat (civil) and Sadar
Nizamat Adalat (Criminal). In 1801, these appellate duties were transferred from the
executive to the Supreme Court of Calcutta. The Cornwallis code further established
four Provincial Courts of Appeal located in Calcutta, Murshidabad, Dacca and Patna.
Provincial courts were further developed in 1795 at Benares and in 1803 at Bareilly.
These courts handled cases on appeal from the District Courts of Bengal to prevent
overloading the Sadar Diwani Adalat in Calcutta. Each Provincial court accepted
appeals from six to nine District courts. They consisted of three English judges which
were later raised to 4. They provided original justice in the case of criminal trials.
Within the district, the Zilla court system provided primary civil justice and the
Nizamat Adalat for criminal cases of the first instance. With these systematic
developments, the collector gave up his judicial duties.

Cornwallis code of 1793 further removed the judicial duties formerly held by the
collector and passed them to the Diwani Adalat established in each district it
included guidelines for the appropriate for Hindu or Mohammedan laws.

In order to reduce the case loads at the district level, commissions consisting of
Indian officials were developed to hear cases not exceeding 50 rupees in value.

The regulation further enacted that judges could commute the sentences of
mutilation and amputation awarded by the Jutwa of Mohammedan law to hard
labour for 7 years.

The Cornwallis code provided for the appointment of Vakils or Indian pleaders to
serve in the courts of civil judicature in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. The Sadar Diwani
Adalat licensed the Hindu and Mohammedan pleaders. When required, ‘Public
Pleaders’ could be employed to represent the government when it was a party. This
measure empowered the Governor General to appoint covenanted servants of the
company as justice of peace.
In 1793 the position of the law officer developed within the judicial system, in Bengal
and then later in the other presidencies. The law officer advised judges of Zilla, city
courts, and Sadar courts of issues regarding the personal law of Hindu and Muslims.

In 1795, Lord Cornwallis revived a system of fees or stamp duties on cases to

discourage the introduction of frivolous cases in Bengal. The fee structure was further
enhanced in 1797.

APPRAISAL OF THE SYSTEM OF 1793

Cornwallis’ reforms of 1793 were based on two basic postulates of the British
Constitutional Law, viz., separation of the judiciary from the executive and the
subjection of the executive to judicial control. Cornwallis believed that no system
could ever effective so long as its due execution depended solely on the personal
qualifications of the individuals appointed to work it. The security of person and
property must be established by a system upheld by its own inherent principles.
Cornwallis devised a scheme of 1793 which, from all standards and tests, constituted
an exquisite system to afford protection to person and property.

The subsequent changes made in the adalat system introduced by Cornwallis were
dictated mostly by the practical need to cope with the load coming before the
adalats. These changes followed six main lines of development.

Firstly, the policy of disturbing justice free of cost was negative within a short time
thus knocking out an important tenet on which the system of 1793 was based.

Secondly, there was gradual evolution of the subordinate judiciary below the district
adalat.

Thirdly, the Indians gradually secured an increasingly larger share in the function of
administration to justice.

Fourthly, applying the principle of separation of powers between the executive and
the judiciary, the Sadar Adalats were separated from the executive and placed under
separate judges.

Fifthly, the principle of separation was gradually negated at the lower level insofar as
the decision of revenue matters was handed over to the collectors in course of time.

Sixthly, gradually, the right of appeal from the lower to the higher courts was
curtailed.