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Civil, Police and Judicial Reforms under British Judicial Reforms under British

Warren Hastings

Before dual administration in Bengal, the justice system was ruler centric as the nawab was the chief administrator of justice.

He decided to reform the corrupt system. Each district was provided with a civil court under the Collector and a criminal court under an Indian Judge.

• To hear appeals from the district courts two appellate courts, one for civil cases and another for criminal cases, were established at Calcutta.
• The highest civil court of appeal was called Sadar Diwani Adalat, which was to be presided over by the Governor and two judges recruited from among the members of his council.
• Similarly, the highest appellate criminal court was known as Sadar Nizamat Adalat which was to function under an Indian judge appointed by the Governor-in-Council.
• Hindu and Muslim judges were provided to assist the judges. A digest of Hindu law was prepared in Sanskrit by learned Pandits and it was translated into Persian. An English translation of it — Code of Hindu Laws — was pre pared by Halhed.

Judicial Reforms by Cornwallis

The top of the judicial system, the highest civil and criminal courts of appeal, namely Sadar Diwani Adalat and Sadar Nizamat Adalat were functioning at Calcutta. Both of them were presided over by the Governor-General and his Council.

• There were four provincial courts of appeal at Calcutta, Dacca, Murshidabad and Patna, each under three European judges assisted by Indian advisers.
• District and City courts functioned each under a European judge. Every district was provided with a court. As already stated, Cornwallis had taken away from the collectors of their judicial powers and made them solely responsible for the collection of revenue. As a result, District Judges were appointed.

Judicial Reforms by William Bentick

• In the judicial department he abolished the provincial courts of appeal established by Cornwallis as they were largely responsible for the huge arrears of cases.
• Another good measure of Bentinck was the introduction of local languages in the lower courts and English in the higher courts in the place of Persian.

Police under British

Police reforms by Cornwallis

• District Judge controlled the police. Each district was divided into thanas or police circles each of which was about 20 square miles.

It was placed under an Indian officer called daroga who was ably assisted by many constables.

Police Reforms of curzon

He believed in efficiency and discipline of the police force. He instituted a Police Commission in 1902 under the chairmanship of Sir Andrew Frazer (Frazer commission). Curzon accepted all the recommendations and implemented them.

• He set up training schools for both the officers and the con stables and introduced provincial police service.

Civil Services under British

Evolution of Civil Services

• After the Revolt of 1857, when the rule of the company ended and power was transferred to the British Crown, i.e., after 1886 the service came to be called the Imperial Civil Service (ICS).
• In 1854, the Macaulay Committee recommended that ap pointment to the service based on the company’s patronage be stopped and a merit-based system be established. ‘
• Post-1855, recruitment to the ICS was based on merit only through a competitive examination. It was restricted to Indians.
• In 1886, the Aitchison Commission chaired by Sir Charles Aitchison recommended that Indians also get employed in public service.
• In 1912, the Islington Commission suggested that 25 % of the higher posts be filled by Indians. It also recommended that recruitment to higher posts should be done partly in India and partly in England.
• The Public Service Commission of India was established on 1″ October 1926 under the chairmanship of Sir Ross Barker.
• With the August Declaration of 1917 by Edwin Montague in the House of Commons, which had promised an increase in the association of Indians in the administration, the proportion of Indians in the civil services began to increase significantly and by 1930s Indians were in majority in the civil services.
• All India Services were designated as Central Superior Services in 1924.
• By 1934, there were seven All India Services including the Indian Forest Service, Indian Police, Indian Political Service etc.
• After 1939, the number of Indians in the service increased because of non-availability of Europeans.
• After independence, the ICS became the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).

Purification of Civil Services by Lord Cornwallis

• The company’s servants were wealthy, but the company was facing financial turmoil. This was mainly due to corrupt and ineffective functioning of its employees.

Cornwallis found that the servants of the Company were underpaid. But they received very high commissions on revenues.

However, the police organization was not effective. In the words of Marshman, ‘the daroga enjoyed almost unlimited power of extortion and became the scourge of the country”.

• Cornwallis, who aimed at cleansing the administration, abolished the vicious system of paying small salaries and allowing enormous perquisites.
• He persuaded the Directors of the Company to pay handsome salaries to the Company servants in order that they might free themselves from commercial and corrupting activities. Further, Cornwallis inaugurated the policy of making ap pointments mainly on the basis of merit thereby laying the foundation of the Indian Civil Service. To cut down , on extravagances, he abolished a number of surplus posts.
• Another major reform that Cornwallis introduced was the separation of the three branches of service, namely com mercial, judicial and revenue.
• The collectors, the kingpins of the administrative system were deprived of their judicial powers and their work became merely the collection of revenue.