Judicial Reforms Brought by Lord Cornwallis

Introduction

Lord Cornwallis succeeded Warren Hastings as the Governor General of India. He put forward
certain conditions before The Crown before accepting the post of Governor-General. They
were:

The office of Governor General and the commander-in-chief would be united under one person
i.e. the Governor General.

The Governor General-in-council will have veto over the council on all decisions made
concerning administration and military.

His aims as Governor General were to:

Uproot corruption from the present judiciary and administration system.

Tackle the problem of land revenue.

Develop a proper system of administration of justice.

Lord Cornwallis was Governor General from the year 1786 to 1793 and his most noted work
was in the field of criminal judicature. He introduced changes in the judicial system in three
years – 1787, 1790 and 1793. These were known as Judicial Plan of 1787, 1790 and 1793
respectively.

Judicial Plan of 1787

Reorganisation of districts

The number of districts in Calcutta were reduced from 36 to 23.

Appointment of collector

A collector was appointed in each district. He was an Englishman. Collector was assigned with
two tasks – to collect revenue and to decide cases arising out of revenue matter.
He also presided over the mofussil diwani adalat (district level civil court) as a judge. In mofussil
diwani adalat, he would decide civil cases and cases of zamindars. Appeals from the mofussil
diwani adalat lay to the Sadr Diwani Adalat when the matters exceeded Rs.1000/-. The Sadr
Diwani Adalat was presided was the Governor General.

He also presided over the Magistrate’s Court as a Magistrate, where he was empowered to try
and punish cases of petty crimes and offence upto Rs. 200. Offences having value of more than
Rs.200 would be sent to the Sadr Nizamat Adalat by the Magistrate.

Establishment of Mal Adalats

Mal Adalats were revenue courts in each district which exclusively dealt with revenue matters.

This court was presided by the Collector who decided cases related to revenue as he was an in
charge of revenue matters.

Appeal from the Mal adalat lay to the Board of Revenue in Calcutta and then to the Governor
General-in-council.

Establishment of Registrar Courts

An assistant officer of the collector was appointed who was known as the Registrar. He was
appointed in each district who presided over the Registrar’s court which decided civil cases
upto the value of Rs.200/-

But the decree passed by the Registrar was not final until it was signed by the Mofussil Diwani
Adalat i.e. the Collector.

Judicial Plan of 1790

Reorganisation districts into divisions

The districts were divided into four divisions – Murshidabad, Calcutta, Dacca, and Patna.

Moffusil Faujdari Courts were abolished

Establishment of Court of Circuits

A court of Circuit was Established at each of the four divisions. It was presided by 2 servants of
the company and they were assisted by Muslim law officers – Qazi and muftis. It was not a
stationary court. Instead it was a moving court which moved from district to district in their
respective division to try criminal cases. They visited each district of their division twice
annually.

Increase in Salaries

The salaries of all Judges of all court were fixed and increased to control corruption that was
prevalent in the current system of justice.

Collector to make a report of the working of courts

Collector to make a report of the working of courts he was incharge of i.e. the Magistrate, Mal
Adalat and Mofussil Diwani Adalat; and send it to the British Parliament of England bi-annually
and annually.

The Post of Nawab was abolished

The post of Nawab, who used to preside over Sadr Nizamat Adalat was abolished as he did not
carry out criminal justice properly and it was now presided by the Governor General-in-council
instead.

Court Fees

Court fees was introduced to reduce the burden on courts. Court fees was only charged for
pleaders of the court and for calling the witnesses of the case.
Questionnaire sent to the Magistrates

A questionnaire was sent to the magistrates asking for their opinions on the prevailing criminal
judicial system.

Defects of the Judicial Plan of 1790

The magistrates’ opinions in the questionnaire sent to them revealed the evils of the criminal
justice system. This made Cornwallis realize that certain vital changes were required in the
system of criminal justice.

Two important sources of these evils were-(i) defects in the constitution of the criminal courts
(ii) the gross defects in the Muslim law of Crimes.

Cornwallis resolved to abolish the authority of Nawab over the criminal judicature and to
transfer the administration of criminal justice from Muslim Law officers to the Company’s legal
servants.

Court of Circuits were moving courts which were overburdened with cases, which caused them
delay in moving from one district to another and could not visit some districts twice annually
due to the delay.

There was a lot of collective power of administration and judiciary vested with the collector
which made him abuse his power.

Judicial Plan of 1793

Separation of Executive and the Judiciary

The powers vested in the collector were administrative and judicial as he was also in charge of
collection of revenue and for deciding cases arising out of revenue matter. Now, the collector
was only responsible for the collection of revenue.
Mal Adalats were abolished

Revenue courts which exclusively tried cases arising out of revenue matters and presided by the
Collector as Judge, was now abolished.

All powers and pending suits of the Revenue courts were now transferred to Mofussil Diwani
Adalats and thus not tried by the collector.

Executive subjected judicial control

The Governor General and his council were now subject to judicial control. Any wrong acts
committed by them while carrying out their functions and outside of it could be heard or tried
and punished by the Diwani Adalats. Suits against the Government by private individuals could
be brought forward and were tried by the Diwani Courts.

Indian natives had to sign a bond with the British Subjects agreeing to go to court

British could recover claims from Indian natives and vice versa by signing a bond with each
other agreeing to go to court.

Establishment of Provincial Courts of Appeal at the four divisions

Earlier the appeal from the Mofussil Diwani Adalats lay to the Sadr Diwani Adalat situated at
Calcutta. But this process for time consuming and expensive so provincial courts of appeal were
established at each division i.e. Patna, Calcutta Murshidabad and Dacca. Appeals from the
Mofussil Adalat now lay to the provincial court of appeal which were to be heard within three
months of filing them. These courts were presided by three covenant English servants of the
company. Quorum was of two servants. It was an open court and could try revenue, civil and
criminal cases. They could also try cases referred to them by the Sadr Diwani Adalats.

Cases valued more than Rs. 5000 were referred to the King-in-council.
Native Officers given important posts

Native officers were appointed by the Governor General-in-council.Native officers were made
Munsiffs of the Munsiff courts at district level. This court could try cases upto Rs.50. Zamindars,
Tehsildars, etc appointed as Munsiffs.

Personal Laws of Hindus and Muslims were applicable in cases relating to marriage, inheritance,
caste, religious usages and institutions. These personal laws were interpreted by the native
officers who were appointed to assist the court to expound the personal law

7.Sadr Diwani Adalat

It was highest court of appeal in India. It was presided over by the Governor General and the
Council who were the Judges of the Sadr Diwani Adalat. Their function was to supervise the
lower courts and to hear appeals from the provincial courts of appeal when the sum of the
matter of the case was more than Rs.1000.

Further an appeal from the Sadr Diwani Adalat lay to the King-in-council, when the sum of the
matter of the case was more than Rs.5000.

Reforms in criminal judicature

The court of circuit was merged with the provincial court of appeal. The power of the collector
as a magistrate was taken away and was vested in the judges of the diwani adalats instead.

Uniform pattern of Regulations

Until now, any new regulation that was issued did not follow an uniform pattern. This was
changed by making it a rule that any new regulation that would be made would have a title to
explain the nature of the subject matter and contain a preamble which would state the purpose
for enacting the regulation.
Reforms in Muslim Personal Law

The Sadr Nizamat Adalat was directed to to follow the muslim personal law to try and punish
criminal cases, but with some modifications. The relatives of murder victims did not have a
provision to pardon the murderer. The cruel and inhuman punishments such as cutting off limbs
of the offender were replaced with punishment of imprisonment and hard labour for 14 years.

Court Fees abolished

Court fees which was imposed in the judicial plan of 1787 was abolished. The court fee was
abolished so that the people could easily reach to the court for securing justice.

Legal Profession recognised for the first time in India

The legal profession was recognised in India for the first time. The pleaders of the case had to
have prior legal knowledge to be eligible to be a pleader of the court.

Defects of the judicial plan of 1790

The provisions of multiple levels of appeals made the judicial machinery complicated and slow
moving. Thus, large number of cases remained pending in the courts for long period.

The Indians were totally excluded from the judiciary except at very low level of munsif.
Cornwallis was of a belief that the Indians were unworthy of holding any position of
responsibility because of their character. This distrust shown towards the Indians generated the
dissatisfaction among the native people as well as made the system less efficient as the English
servants did not know and understand the customs, usages, etc. of the people; therefore
Europeans could not understand nor provide solutions the problems of the natives.

Cornwallis did everything on procedural side but he could not reform the substantive part of
law mainly the criminal law which was based on Muslim law and had many defects.

Conclusion
Through his various judicial plans, Cornwallis was successful to uproot the evil of corruption.
Though Cornwallis was a just administrator, he was seen as a racial discriminatory as he
reserved all the high posts of judicature for the Europeans. Even though Cornwallis almost
perfected the administration of civil judicature, the problem of criminal law was still prevalent
as the criminal law was based on Muslim personal law which already had prevalent defects in it.