Need_for_the_Enactment_of_the_Regulating_Act_of_1773

(1.1) Conditions prior to the act of 1773 The conditions or the state of places like Bihar, Bengal and Orissa was the main reason for which the regulating act was passed, these places were under chaos, confusion and disturbance because of the misuse of powers by the company servants and other such reasons. To counter all these problems the british parliament decided to pass an act with provisions which could later solve the problems and this act was the Regulating Act of 1773. The conditions can be put under 3 main points, namely: (a) Misuse Of Powers By The Company’s Officials: after the battles of plassey (1757) and buxar (1764), the company established military supremacy over the areas of Bihar, Bengal and Orissa, because they captured or took control over the Diwani and the Nizamat. This bought a great deal of confusion and anarchy in these places and the company’s servants were given to their obsession for wealth. Corruption was widespread among them and they exploited the people to amass huge fortune for themselves so that they can return to England quickly.# and when they returned back to England they participated in politics and with their illegal money they used to get the/ purchase the seat in House of Commons. This vulgar display of the display of wealth earned them the nickname of ‘nabobs’.# Thus this clearly distinguished the fact that the company servants used to exploit the poor Indians and used to run away to use this illegal wealth looted by them. (b) The Company’s Political Ambitions: the british parliament realized that the company’s motives had started to change from a mere commercial basis and started to come to the political arena, and at this point of time the parliament in Britain thought that the company should not have any political powers because they have zero experience and they just have knowledge about how to trade. The mess that they made in Bengal and other places surrounding it was all the more reason for the british parliament to pass the regulating act of 1773. (c) Apprehensions About The Company’s Financial Position: while the company’s servants were getting rich the company was getting poor and was getting under financial crisis. The spirit of bargaining with the company started by an act of 1767 under which the british parliament granted the company to acquire territory on a condition that a sum of 400,000 pounds per year will be paid by the company to the crown.#. The parliament’s demand increased and the company fell into debts, and thus came the need to check the money matters. (d) Condemnatory Reports by parliamentary committees: the house of commons appointed two parliamentary committees, namely, a select committee and a secret committee to study the state of company in India# and the reports were always very condemnatory and thus the parliament thought the company could no longer take charge of its activities alone in inia and thus it finally decided to interfere.# Other than these the Main Objectives of the bill were as follows: (i) reform the constitution of the company, (ii) to reform the company’s government in India, and (iii) to and provide remedies against illegalities and oppressions committed by the servants of the company in India. Accordingly, the regulating act of 1773 changed the back bone of the present situation and altered the structure of the government. The bill was finally passed by an overwhelming majority in the house of commons on june 11 1773 and subsequently at the house of lords and received the royal assent on june 21, 1773. (1.2) The Provisions Stated in the Act of 1773 The provisions of the regulating act or the salient features of the regulating act were only to impose control of the company in India as well as England. The provisions or the features can be listed as follows: (a) election for directors- the directors of the company were elected for a period of 4 years, one-fourth of them were to retire every year and the retiring directors were not entitled to be elected again. Kaye nicely pointed out that “the effect of this provision was to secure stability and continuity in the policy of directors.” (b) governor-general and the council- in stead of a governor and council, a governor-general and council was appointed. The decisions of the council were taken by a majority. (c) powers of the duties and duties of the council- the presidencies of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa were under the control of the governor-general and council, all the military and territorial powers were vested in them and along with that they also had the power over commerce and trading arena’s#. (d) establishment of supreme court- the act had a special section for the establishment of supreme court I.e. section 13 of the act and it had all the provisions for the establishment of a supreme court authorized by the king george II. (e) control over madras and Bombay- the presidencies of Bengal and madras were under the control of the governor-general and council for reducing the existing state of confusion and chaos present in those states due to the corruption by company’s servants and their misuse of power. (f) legislative power of the council- the governor general and council could make any riles and regulations in case of breach of duty and any rules to disturb the good governance and reasonable order in the society, however the rules and regulations must be subject to some conditions such as (i) the rules and regulations made must not be repugnant to the laws of England, (ii) they were not valid and effective unless registered and published in the supreme court, (iii) the rules and regulations or ordinances could be set aside or rejected by the king-in-council on an application presented to the supreme court within sixty days of registration and finally the last condition (iv) the governor-general and the council had to submit the copies of the rules, regulations and ordinances to the secretary of the state of England. The king could disagree with the law but if he did not within 2 years the law was accepted.# The regulating act was described as the “the act for establishing certain rules and regulations for the better management of the affairs of the east India company” therefore it was an act which was passed to bring order in the society and end the chaotic state of the presidencies. The regulating act of 1773 brought two major changes in the spine cord of the constitution of the east India company. Firstly the term of the director was increased from 1year to 4 years and provision was made for electing one-fourth of the directors every year in the rotation. The act also recognized the structure of the Calcutta government. It appointed the governor general and council of four and gave them military and civil powers. And at last the main and another important provision of the regulating act of 1773 was the 3 presidencies enjoyed a status of independent state but they were put under the observation of the governor general and the council in matters of war and peace.# Miscellaneous provisions- the act also provided provisions to control the or to check the flagrant abuses very prevalent at the time of the machinery in India. The governor-general and the members of the council , judges of the supreme court and the officers engaged in the collection of revenue were prohibited from receiving presents or engaging in private trade. The court of king’s bench in England was empowered to punish offences, crimes or misdemeanours committed against the king-in-council.# (2) Supreme Court at Calcutta (2.1) Charter Of The Supreme Court: The regulating act of 1773 superseded the charter of 1753 and thereby empowered the crown or the british government to establish a supreme court. The section 13 of the charter, authorized by the king george II issued a letters patent for establishing a supreme court of judicature at fort Williams, on 26th march 1774. The charter of 1774 established the jurisdiction of the supreme court, the supreme court had the following jurisdiction: (i) Civil Jurisdiction(ii) Equity jurisdiction (iii) Criminal jurisdiction(iv) Ecclesiastical jurisdiction(v) Admiralty Jurisdiction.# (i) Civil Jurisdiction- the supreme court had 2 types of civil jurisdiction and they were distributed according to the presidencies ways that is the powers of supreme court regarding Calcutta were territorial and therefore civil matters regarding it fell within the ambit of supreme court. Whereas the areas beyond the presidency limits were only under personal civil jurisdiction of the supreme court. Therefore, a suit could be filed in the supreme court against the following categories of persons, irrespective of the location of the cause of action. The categories were: (a) the east India company (b) the mayor and the alderman of Calcutta (c) any of his majesty’s subjects who resided or held any property within the provinces of Bengal, Bihar or Orissa. In all the above categories the supreme court has original jurisdiction.# (ii) Equity Jurisdiction- the supreme court and the high court of chancery in great Britain had the same jurisdiction (iii) Criminal Jurisdiction- the supreme court extended this power of it’s to the britishers and the servants of the company living in the Calcutta, Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. The Indians or the natives were exempted from this jurisdiction. The supreme court had no jurisdiction over the governor-general and the council except in the cases of the treason or felony. (iv) Ecclesiastical jurisdiction- the supreme court had the same jurisdiction over british subjects in India as the ecclesiastical courts in England at that time. In that capacity the supreme court functioned as a court of testamentary and probate jurisdiction. It also appointed guardians and keepers for infants and lunatics properties. (v) Admiralty Jurisdiction- the supreme court had the admiralty jurisdiction in all cases civil and maritime and also in all the maritime cases committed on high seas at that time.# The supreme court was empowered to superintend the court of collector, the quarter sessions and the court of requests and was empowered to issue writs of certiorari, mandamus, error or procedendo. Thus the supreme court of Calcutta was granted the widest jurisdiction and many important powers. (2.2) Merits and Demerits of Supreme Court The first judge of the supreme court was sir Ehjah Impey and John Hyde, Robert Chambers and Le Maistre were the first pusine judges of the supreme court.# The concept of supreme court and its establishment was always welcomed because with the presence of supreme court in the presidency area I.e. Calcutta there was finally a proper law binding authority consisting of lawyer judges, it was a proper authority and it was individual that is it was not under the influence of the executive which implies the company’s government and the supreme court were two individual authorities, then another reason for it being very useful and beneficial for the company as well as the natives of the presidencies was that that the jurisdiction of the court was so wide that every legal wrong could have been covered by it and be redressed by it and the last was that the subjection of all british subjects to its jurisdiction ensured the rule of law. The supreme court was simultaneously a court of law as well as equity, it thus constituted the first experiment of a single court administering both common law and equity.# The supreme court was or may be even regarded as the precursor of the judicature act of 1873, by which all the courts were merged into one single court which came to administer the various types of jurisdiction. The supreme court was regarded as an improvement over the judicial system prevailing in England. The two main achievements of the provisions of the regulating act were: (a) it made changes in the personnel of the governors council by which the doings of the company’s servants would henceforth be controlled by men who have no personal interest to serve by misgovernments in the districts, and who presumably would be free from the class prejudices of the company’s servants. (b) it substituted a court of king’s judges and professional men of the law for a court composed of company’s servants who were removable by the company’s servants. Though the aims and objectives of the makers of the regulating act was very good and was for the benefit of the people and the company, many defects came to light subsequently. Some of the defects can be listed down: 1.Relationship between the supreme court and the governor general and council- it was very ambiguous and because of the ambiguity the supreme court and the governor general and council were at logger heads. 2. The relationship between the supreme court and the company’s court in the moffussil area was also not very clear, there was confusion on the part where whether the supre,me court can issue writs and entertain appeal or vice-versa. 3. The jurisdiction of the supreme court was not very clear with respect to the outer limits of the presidency limits. 4. Position of natives living outside the presidency limits was also not clear. Whether they will be governed by the English law or by their own law. 5. The act did not make any clear provisions regarding about the law which the supreme court had to apply in the proceedings before it. Although it applied English law but still it was not clear about the extent of its application.# Thus all these problems were present even after the regulating act of 1773. The problems were even reflected in the cases like Raja Nand Kumar’s case, Patna case and the Kkosijurah case, each of them displayed the fact that even though the supreme court helped a lot to reduce any other problems to occur but it was not a proper solution. Thus at the end of my research project I would like to sum up all the information into a few lines: the regulating act of 1773 came into force to reduce the misuse of powers and privileges given to the company servants and also to establish a proper judicial system in the country and thus the supreme court was established. To accomplish all this there were many parliamentary debates, discussions and interference into the company matters and many provisions were made which were supposedly very well structured to bring good governance in the presidencies of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. The regulating act of 1773 had a 50-50 % result and thus it was a pretty good attempt on the part of the English government.