Tenure of office of (a) There are four chartered high courts: at Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, and Allahabad. By s. 2 of the Indian High Courts Act, 1911 (1 & 2 Geo. V, c. 18) power is now given to establish additional chartered high courts. (b) There is power in all cases to raise the number to this maximum. The Indian High Courts Act, 1911 (1 & 2 Geo. V, c. 18) has raised the maximum, including the chief justice, to 20 (s. 1), and given power to appoint additional temporary judges (s. 3). (c) The word 'pleader' in the enactment reproduced by this section apparently includes every one who has for ten years been allowed to 'plead' in the Indian sense, i. e. to act as a barrister in the high court, though not a barrister or member of the Faculty of Advocates. 97. (1) Every judge of a high court holds his office judges of during His Majesty's pleasure (a). high courts. Vict. c. (2) Any such judge may resign his office, in the case of the [24 & 25 high court at Calcutta, to the Governor-General in Council, 104, 8. 4.] and in the case of any other high court to the local Government of the province in which the high court is established. Prece dence of (a) As to tenure during pleasure, see the note on s. 21 above. 98. (1) The chief justice of a high court has rank and judges of precedence before the other judges of the same court. high courts. [24 & 25 Vict. c. 104, s. 5.] Salaries, &c., of judges of high courts. [24 & 25 Vict. c. 104, 8. 6.] Provision for va cancy in the office of chief (2) All the other judges of a high court have rank and precedence according to the seniority of their appointments, unless otherwise provided by the terms of their appointment. 99. The Secretary of State in Council may fix the salaries, allowances, furloughs, retiring pensions, and (where necessary) expenses for equipment and voyage of the chief justices and judges of the several high courts, and from time to time alter them, but any such alteration does not affect the salary of any judge appointed before the date thereof. For existing salaries and allowances, see note on s. 80. 100.—(1) On the occurrence of a vacancy in the office of chief justice of a high court, and during any absence of such a chief justice, the Governor-General in Council in the justice or case of the high court at Calcutta, and the local Government in other cases, is to appoint one of the judges of the same high court to perform the duties of chief justice of other judge. [24 & 25 the court until some person has been appointed by His Majesty Vict. c. 104, 8. 7.] to the office of chief justice of the court, and has entered on the discharge of the duties of that office, or until the chief justice has returned from his absence, as the case requires (a). (2) On the occurrence of a vacancy in the office of any other judge of a high court, and during any absence of any such judge, or on the appointment of any such judge to act as chief justice, the Governor-General in Council or local Government, as the case may be, may appoint a person, with such qualifications as are required in persons to be appointed to the high court, to act as a judge of the court; and the person so appointed may sit and perform the duties of a judge of the court until some person has been appointed by His Majesty to the office of judge of the court, and has entered on the discharge of the duties of the office, or until the absent judge has returned from his absence, or until the Governor-General in Council or local Government sees cause to cancel the appointment of the acting judge (b). (a) Apparently the person appointed to act for the chief justice need not be a barrister-judge, though the chief justice himself must be a barrister. See s. 96 (3) above. (b) The appointment remains in force until the occurrence of one of the contingencies mentioned in this sub-section, and hence cannot be made for a specified time. Probably the 'acting judge' referred to at the end of the sub-section is the judge acting as chief justice referred to above. There is no limit of time within which the appointment must be made. See Rao Balwant Singh v. Rani Kishori L. R. 25 I. A. 54, 76. Jurisdiction. tion of high courts. [13 Geo. ÌÏÏ, c. 63, 101.-(1) Subject to any law made by the Governor- JurisdicGeneral in Council (a), the several high courts have such jurisdiction, original and appellate, including admiralty jurisdiction in respect of offences committed on the high seas, and all such powers and authority over or in relation to the administration of justice, including power to appoint clerks III, c. 70, and other ministerial officers of the court, and power to make 33 Geo. III, c. 52, rules for regulating the practice of the court, as are vested in s. 156. 88. 13, 14. 21 Geo. 8. 8. 37 Geo. III, c. 142, S. II. 39 & 40 them by charter or letters patent, and subject to the provisions of any such law, charter or letters patent, all such jurisdiction, powers, and authority as were vested in any of the courts in the same presidency abolished by the Indian 4 Geo. IV, High Courts Act, 1861, at the date of their abolition (b). Geo. III, c. 79, ss. 2, 5. c. 71, ss. 7, 17. 24 & 25 Vict. c. 104, s. 9.] (2) Each of the high courts at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay is a court of record and a court of oyer and terminer and jail delivery for the territories under its jurisdiction. (3) Subject to any law made by the Governor-General in Council, the said high courts have not and may not exercise any original jurisdiction in any matter concerning the revenue or concerning any act ordered or done in the collection thereof according to the usage and practice of the country or the law for the time being in force (c). (a) This power is reserved by s. 9 of the Indian High Courts Act, 1861. (b) The jurisdiction of the chartered high courts in India is based partly on their charters and partly on parliamentary enactments applying either to the high courts themselves or to their predecessors. The charters are to be found in the Statutory Rules and Orders Revised, vol. vi. The statutory enactments still unrepealed with respect to the jurisdiction of the high court are as follows: By s. 13 of the Regulating Act of 1773 (13 Geo. III, c. 63) the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William was declared to have full power and authority to exercise and perform all civil, criminal, admiralty, and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and to appoint clerks and other ministerial officers, and to form and establish such rules of practice, and such rules for the process of the court, and to do all such things as might be found necessary for the administration of justice and the due execution of all or any of the powers which by the charter might be granted and committed to the court. It was also to be at all times a court of record and a court of oyer and terminer and jail delivery in and for the town of Calcutta and factory of Fort William, and the limits thereof, and the factories subordinate thereto. Under s. 14 of the same Act, the new charter of the court, and the jurisdiction, powers, and authorities to be thereby established, were to extend to all British subjects who should reside in the kingdoms or provinces of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, or any of them, under the protection of the Company, and the court was to have full power and authority to hear and determine all complaints against any of His Majesty's subjects for any crime, misdemeanours, or oppressions, and to entertain, hear, and determine any suits or actions whatsoever against any of His Majesty's subjects in Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, and any suit, action, or complaint against any person who at the time when the debt or cause of action or complaint had arisen had been employed by, or been directly or indirectly in the service of, the Company, or of any of His Majesty's subjects. Section 156 of the East India Company Act, 1793 (33 Geo. III, c. 52), enacted and declared that the power and authority of the supreme court at Calcutta extended to the high seas, and that the court should have full power and authority to inquire, hear, try, examine, and determine, by the oaths of honest and lawful men, being British subjects resident in the town of Calcutta, all treasons, murders, piracies, robberies, felonies, maimings, forestallings, extortions, trespasses, misdemeanours, offences, excesses, and enormities, and maritime causes whatsoever, according to the laws and customs of the Admiralty of England, done, perpetrated, or committed upon any of the high seas, and to fine, imprison, correct, punish, chastise, and reform parties guilty and violators of the laws, in like and in as ample manner to all intents and purposes as the said court might or could do if the same were done, perpetrated, or committed within the limits prescribed by the charter, and not otherwise or in any other manner. The East India Act, 1797 (37 Geo. III, c. 142), after providing for the erection of courts of judicature at Madras and Bombay, gave those courts, by s. 11, the jurisdiction formerly exercisable by the mayor's court at Madras and at Bombay, or by the courts of oyer and terminer or jail delivery there, and declared, by s. 13, that these courts were to have full power to hear and determine all suits and actions that might be brought against the inhabitants of Madras and Bombay respectively in manner provided by the charter, subject, however, to the proviso in s. 108 of this Digest. The Government of India Act, 1800 (39 & 40 Geo. III, c. 78), authorized the grant of a charter for the establishment of a supreme court at Madras. It was (s. 2) to have full power to exercise such civil, criminal, admiralty, and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, both as to natives and British subjects, and to be invested with such powers and authorities, privileges and immunities, for the better administration of the same, and to be subject to the same limitations, restrictions, and control within Fort St. George and the town of Madras, and the limits thereof, and the factories subordinate thereto, and within the territories subject to or dependent on the Government of Madras, as the supreme court at Fort William was invested with or subject to within Fort William or the kingdoms or provinces of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. The Indian Bishops and Courts Act, 1823 (4 Geo. IV, c. 71, s. 7), authorized the grant of a charter for the establishment of a supreme court at Bombay with jurisdiction corresponding to that previously given to the supreme court at Madras, and declared, by s. 17, that the supreme courts at Madras and Bombay were to have the same powers as the supreme court at Fort William in Bengal. In 1828 an Act (9 Geo. IV, c. 74) was passed for improving the administration of criminal justice in the East Indies. The only sections now unrepealed in this Act are ss. 1.7, 8, 9, 25, 26, 56, and 110. By & I the Act is declared to extend to all persons and all places, as well on land as on the high seas, over whom or which the criminal jurisdiction of any of His Majesty's courts of justice erected or to be erected within the British territories under the government of the United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies does or shall hereafter extend. Sections 7, 8, and 9, which relate to accessories, and s. 25, which relates to punishments, are apparently superseded as to admiralty cases by the Admiralty Offences (Colonial) Act, 1849 (12 & 13 Vict. e. 96), and the Admiralty Jurisdiction (India) Act, 1860 (23 & 24 Vict. c. 88, see The Queen Empress v. Barton, I. L. R. 16 Cal. 238), and as to other cases by the Indian Codes. Section 26 lays down a rule for interpreting criminal statutes, corresponding to the rule embodied for India in the General Clauses Act of 1897, and for the United Kingdom in the Interpretation Act, 1889. Section 56 extends to British India the provisions previously enacted for England by 9 Geo. IV, c. 31, s. 8, with respect to offences committed in two different places, or partially committed in one place and completed in another, but has been held not to make any person liable to punishment for a complete offence who would not have been so liable before. See Nga Hoong v. Reg., 7 Moo. Ind. App. 72, 7 Cox C.C.489. In this case some Burmese native subjects of the East India Company committed a murder on the Cocos Islands, which were then uninhabited islands in the Bay of Bengal, within the limits of the Company's charter. They were convicted under the Act of 1828 by the supreme court of Calcutta, but the conviction was reversed by the Privy Council. It was held that the place in which the offence was committed was, but the offenders personally were not, within the jurisdiction conferred by the statute, and that the object of the statute was only to apply to the East Indies the enactment previously passed for England. Section 110 of the Act of 1828 has been repealed, except so far as it is in force in the Straits Settlements. The Admiralty Offences (Colonial) Act, 1849 (12 & 13 Vict. c. 96), enacts that if any person within any colony (which is to include British India, 23 & 24 Vict. c. 88, s. 1) is charged with the commission of any offence committed upon the sea or in any haven, river, creek, or place where the admiral has jurisdiction, or being so charged is brought for trial to any colony, all magistrates, justices of the peace, public prosecutors, juries, judges, courts, public officers, and other persons in the colony are to have the same jurisdiction and authority with respect to the offence as if the offence had been committed upon any waters situate within the limits of the local jurisdiction of the courts of criminal justice of the colony. The Act further enacts (s. 3) that where any person dies in any colony of any stroke, poisoning, or hurt, having been feloniously stricken, poisoned, or hurt upon the sea, or in any haven, river, creek, or place where the admiral has jurisdiction, or at any place out of the colony, every offence committed in respect of any such case, whether amounting |