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Judicial Plan of Warren Hastings 1772, 1774 and 1780

The Judicial plan of 1772 was devised into several districts. On each district an officer, an English servant
of the company, was appointed as the Collector. He was primarily responsible for the collection of
revenue in the district. He was to preside as the Judge in the Mofussil Diwani Adalat, and to exercise a
supervisory control over the Mofussil Nizamat Adalat in his district.

The Mofussil Diwani Adalat was established in each district for deciding civil cases including real
and personal property, inheritance, caste, marriage, debt, disputed accounts, contracts, partnerships and
demands of rent. Mofussil Nizamat, i.e., Fauzdari Adalat was also established in each distric for the trial
of criminal cases.

Besides the lower courts established in every district, two superior courts of justice were established at
Calcutta-Sardar Diwani Adalat and the Suddar Fouzdari Nizzamat Adalat.

The system which Hastings established in 1772 was defective. Under it the Collector enjoyed very wide
powers and was the administrator, the Judge and the Magistrate in the district. They carried on their
own trade utilized their powers to their own selfish ends. Hence the judicial plan of 1774 was formulated
by Hastings. Some of the main features of this plan were as follows:

(1) The provinces Bengal, Bihar and Orissa were divided into 6 divisions. In each of these divisions a
small council renowned as the Provincial Council was appointed whose function was to look
after the collection of revenue in the division.

(2) Each division was sub-divided into several districts. In each district, an Indian officer known as
the Diwan was appointed in place of the Collector. The Diwan was responsible for the collection
of revenue in his district.

(3) In all cases decided by the Mofussil Diwani Adalat appeals could go to the Provincial Council of
the Division as the Provincial Court of Appeal.

These are some important points in that plan:

1.Warren Hastings Administrative plan divided territory of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa into number of
Districts.

2.In each District an English servant of the company was appointed as collector who was to be
responsible for the collection of land revenue.

3.Establishment of Mofussil Diwani Adalat

4.As per Warren Hastings plan a Mofussil Diwani Adalat was established in every district with collector as
the Judge. The court was authorized to decide all civil cases like disputes regarding properties,
inheritance, marriage, caste, debts, disputed accounts, contracts, partnerships and demands of rent.
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5.Where ever possible religious laws of Muslim as well as Hindus were followed and applied .E.g. Caste,
marriage, inheritance etc.

6.As English servant who was appointed as Collector did not understand the religious laws , Kazis and
Pundits were appointed to help him

7.The decisions of the Mofussil Diwani Adalat in cases up to Rs.500 were final.

8.Establishment of Small Cause Adalat –

9.As name says, this Adalat decided petty cases up to Rs. 10 .The Head farmer of the Pergunnah became
the judge. This system was designed to save the traveling expenses of poor farmers, as they did not need
to travel to the district place for justice.

10.Establishment of Mofussil Fozdari Adalat –

11.In every district a mofussil nizamat or fozdari adalat was established to try all criminal cases.

12.The adalat consisted of the Muslim kazi, mufti and moulvies.

13.The moulvies interpreted the Muslim law of crimes.

14.The Kazi and Mufti gave fatwa and render judgment.

15.In this adalat collector exercise general supervision over the Adalat, and saw that no corruption was
made in the case. The judgment was given impartially.

16.This Fozdari adalat was not allowed to handle cases where punishment was death sentence or
forfeiture of property of the accused. Such cases went to Sadar Nizamat Adalat for final orders.

17.Establishment of Sadar Adalats –

18. Firstly two courts were established namely Mofussil Diwani Adalat and Mofussil Fozdari Adalat over
them 2 superior courts were established namely Sadar Diwani Adalat and Sadar Nizamat Adalat.

19.The sadar diwani adalat was consisted of Governor and members of the council and was to hear
appeals from the mofussil diwani adalat in the cases over 500 Rs.

20.The first sitting of the Sadar Diwani adalat was held on the 17th March, 1773.

21.On each appeal fee of 5 percent was charged.

22.The appeals were to be filed in the Adalat within 2 months from the date of the judgment, decree
given by the Mofussil Adalat.

23.Establishment of Sadar Nizamat Adalat –

24.Sadar Nizamat Adalat consisted of an Indian judge known as Daroga-i-adalat who was to be assisted
by the chief Kazi, chief mufti and 3 moulvies. Nawab appointed all these persons as per the advice of
Governor.

25.In case of death sentence, punishment death warrant was made by the Adalat and signed by the
Nawab as the Head of Nizamat.

26.The governor and council supervised this adalat to control and reduce the corruption.

27.All cases were heard in the open court.

28.All courts were ordered to maintain registers and records.

29.Any case older than 12 years was not accepted.

30.District courts forwarded their records to the Sadar adalat

31.In civil cases when Plaintiff filed a case, defendant accused person was given only limited time to give
answer and then examine the witness and give the decree, pass the final orders.

32.The plan tried to reduce the expenses of people.

33.With this plan law officers like kazis, muftis were given salaries.

34.Before this plan Judge charged the commission but this new plan abolished this law and introduced
the Court fee system where fees went to Government.

35.After this plan and establishment of Courts for common Indians it became easy to approach the
Judiciary.

36.Warren Hastings was very intelligent person; he purposefully did not take the full charge of Criminal
justice system and kept the puppet Nizam alive.

37.He did not change the forms and when possible tried to show case that company respected the
Nizam. Like Nizam got the power to sign the death sentence.

38.The other clever intelligent system Warren Hastings kept alive was that following Hindu laws for
Hindus and Muslim laws for the Muslims.

39.In this plan collector got the many powers, collector was the administrator, tax collector, civil judge
and supervisor over the criminal courts.

40.With this collectors got the unlimited powers and Warren Hastings knew this that collectors will
become corrupt and he already told the company directors about this defect of this plan. The directors
of the company understood the fear and reality of this plan.
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41.In the year 1773, Company directed the Calcutta council to withdraw the collectors as they became
very corrupt.

42.After this Calcutta Government introduced new plan for the collection of revenue and administration
of Justice on November 23, 1773 and put it into force in the year 1774.

Plan of 1774 –

43.With this plan collectors were recalled from every district.

44.In place of Collector an Indian officer was appointed called as Diwan or amil.

45.Diwan got the power to collect the revenue as well as act as a judge in the Mofussil diwani adalat.

46.The territory of Bengal , Bihar and Orissa was divided into six divisions with their head quarters at
Calcutta, Burdwan, Murshidabad , Dinajpore, Dacca and Patna

47.In each division many districts were created.

48.The complete Bihar came under the Patna Division

49.A provincial Council consisting of four or five English servants of the company were appointed in each
division to supervise the collection of revenue and to hear appeals from the cases decided by the amil ,
the Indian diwan.

50.The appeals from this Provincial council were allowed if the case amount was more than Rs. 1000.
The appeal went to Sadar Diwani Adalat.

51.This time also Warren Hastings new that the Provisional council will do the more harm and more
corruption than the Collectors. Warren Hastings thought this plan as a temporary plan but Regulating act
was passed in this time and Warren Hasting could not change the plan until year 1780

Judicial Plan of 1780, First Indian Civil Code Prepared: Warren Hastings knew that the judicial plan
of 1774 was not perfect, and when Warren Hastings again got the chance and He made changes to the
judicial plan of 1774, On April 11, 1780 new plan was introduced.

As per the plan of 1780 judicial and executive functions were separated.

Adalats – Function to do civil justice, no revenue work

Provincial Council - No judicial work, only revenue related work, collection and revenue cases.

But with this plan the problem was that, area was vast and adalats were few to administer those
large areas, because of this, cases were more, time was limited with the judges and thus arrears piled up
in every adalat.

2nd problem was that witnesses have to travel lot to reach the adalats
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There was only one Adalat in the whole of Bihar.

Because of this people thought it is better not to file the cases in courts, as filing cases in court
meant, delayed justice, physical harassment, waste of time and money.

As per the judicial plan cases up to Rs.100 were referred to the person who stayed near the
place of litigant ,but before this it was compulsory to file the case in the Adalat, and 2nd problem was
that the person who work as judge has to work as a honorary judge and he did not get any salary . The
Zamindar or public officer acted as an honorary judge and they charged money for this and also
zamindar got the chance to do corruption as he became the honorary judge.

Warren Hasting was not satisfied with the plan of 1780 he always thought about the improving
judicial system in India. The judicial system of East India Company.

On 29th September 1780 Warren Hastings proposed in the Council that chief justice Sir Elijah
Impey be requested to accept the charge of the office of the Sadar Diwani Adalat.

Impey accepted this offer.

He remained in Sadar Adalat for a year but he introduced, made lot of reforms in sadar adalat.
Impey Drafted many regulations to reform the adalats.

On November 3, 1780 first reform, regulation was passed to regulate the procedure of the
diwani adalats.

As per this rule , the Mofussil judge has to decide the facts , he was allow to take the help of
Hindu Pundits or Muslim Mulla if it was necessary to understand the cause or case.

Impey Compiled a civil procedure code for the guidance of the Sadar Adalat and mofussil diwani
adalats It was the first code of civil procedure to be prepared in India .

It was promulgated by the Council on July 5, 1781 in the form of a Regulation.

It was the digest of the civil rules

The code consolidated at one place a detailed civil procedure.

The code contained 95 clauses and with it all the previous regulations relating to civil procedure
were repealed.

The code of 1781 clearly defined the functions, powers and jurisdiction of Sadar Diwani Adalat.
This code was translated in Persian and Bengali language that time.

In India, Impey was doing great job, but in England People were not happy with the Impey
because of following reasons –
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Impey was appointed as the Supreme Court judge to monitor the Company affairs in India.
But in India Impey stated to work as a company servant when he accepted to work as the Judge of Sadar
Adalat. Accepting this violated the Regulation act.

Because of other job, they believed that Impey would not do the justice with the job of Supreme
Court.

Because of all above reasons , on 3rd May 1782 in England House of Commons adopted a
resolution requesting the crown, king , to recall Impey to answer the charge of having accepted an office
and violating the Regulating act.

After this Impey left India on 3rd December 1782

From the Impey appointment one should learn that what ever post or job may be, the concern
person must be studied in that profession.

EG. Sports minister should be a sports man in his youth, Agriculture Minister should be graduate
from the agriculture collage.

Regarding criminal justice system Warren Hasting took following steps.

Machinery was created for the purpose of arresting criminals and bringing them before the
fozdari adalat for the trial. This system never existed in India before this.

A new department, office of the Remembrancer was created at Calcutta to keep watch on the
functioning of criminal adalats. The department was to work under the Governor General. The head of
the department was known as Remembrancer of criminal courts. All criminal courts were required to
send periodical reports to this department.

Everything was done as per the Muslim criminal law and Warren Hasting was not happy with many
things, and wanted to reform them, he tried his best but company heads did not accept his views.
Because of this in criminal justice system, everyone made money using the corrupt ways.

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