Government of India circularising the local

Governments as

to the possibility of further and more rapid Indianisation. The non-Indian section of the public service was rendered farther uneasy by these moves. The result has been a new Royal Commission, appointed mainly at the instance of the European element by pressure from Whitehall, and in the teeth of the opposition in the Indian Legislative Assembly, which went the length of refusing to vote the grant for the Royal Commission, which the Viceroy had to restore by the exercise of his extraordinary powers of certification. It remains to be seen what recommendations the new commission makes, and how they are going to be given effect to.

CHAPTER VII

Judicial Administration.

PART IX.

THE INDIAN HIGH COURTS.

Constitution.

101. (1) The High Courts referred to in this Act are the high courts of judicature for the time being established in British India by letters patent.

(2) Each high court shall consist of a chief justice and judges as His Majesty may think fit to appoint.

Provided as follows:

as many other

(i) The Governor-General in Council may appoint persons to act as additional judges of any high court, for such period, not exceeding two years, as may be required; and the judges so appointed shall, whilst so acting, have all the powers of a judge of the high court appointed by His Majesty under this Act;

(ii) The maximum number of judges of a high court, including the chief justice and additional judges, shall be twenty.

(3) A judge of a high court must be :

(a) A barrister of England or Ireland or a member of the Faculty of Advocates in Scotland, of not less than five years' standing: or

(b) A member of the Indian Civil Service of not less than ten years standing, and having for at least three years served as, or exercised the powers of, a district julge; or

(c) A person having held judicial office, not inferior to that of a subordinate judge or a judge of a small causes court, for a period of not less than five years: or

(d) A person having been a pleader of a high court for a period of not

less then ten years.

(4) Provided that not less than one-third of the judges of a high court, including the chief justice but excluding additional judges, must be such barristers or advocates as aforesaid, and that not less than one-third must be members of the Indian Civil Service.

(5) The high court for the North-Western Provinces may be styled the high court of judicature at Allahabad, and the high court at Fort William in Bengal is in this Act referred to as the high court at Calcutta.

102. (1) Every judge of a high court shall hold his office during His Majesty's pleasure.

(2) Any such judge may resign his office, in the case of the high court at Calcutta to the Governor-General in Council, and in other cases to the local Government.

103. (1) The chief justice of a high court shall have rank and precedence before the other judges of the same court.

(2) All the other judges of a high court shall have rank and precedence according to the seniority of their appointments, unless otherwise provided in their patents.

104. (1) 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 other judges of the several high courts, and may alter them, but any such alteration shall not affect the salary of any judge appointed before the date thereof.

(2). The remuneration fixed for a judge under this section shall commence on his taking upon himself the execution of his office, and shall be the whole profit or advantage which he shall enjoy from his office during his continuance therein.

(3) If a judge of a high court dies during his voyage to India, or within six months after his arrival there, for the purpose of taking upon himself the execution of his office, the Secretary of State shall pay to his legal personal representatives, out of the revenues of India, such a sum of money as will, with the amount received by or due to him at the time of his death, make up the amount of one year's salary.

(4) If a judge of a high court dies while in possession of his office and after the expiration of six months from his arrival in India for the purpose of taking upon himself the execution of his office, the Secretary of State shall pay to his legal personal representatives, out of the revenues of India, over and above the sum due to him at the time of his death, a sum equal to six months' salary.

105. (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 case of the High Court at Calcutta, and the local Government in other cases, shall appoint one of the other judges of the same high court, to perform the dutics of chief justice of the court until some person has been appointed by His Majesty to the office of chief justice of the court, and has

entered on the discharge of the duties of that has returned from his absence, as the case requires.

offie, or until the chief justice

(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 in the case of the high court at Calcutta, and the local Government in other cases, 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 the local Government, as the case may be, sees cause to cancel the appointment of the acting judge.

Jurisdiction.

106. (1) The several high courts are courts of record and 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 and other ministerial officers of the court, and power to make rules for regulating the practice of the court, as are vested in them by letters patent, and, subject to the provisions of any such letters patent, all such jurisdictions, powers and authority as are vested in those courts respectively at the commencement of this Act.

(1) (a) The letters patent, establishing, or vesting jurisdiction, powers or authority in a high court may be amended from time to time by His Majesty by further letters patent.

(2) The 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.

107. Each of the high courts has superintendence over all courts for the time being subject to its appellate jurisdiction, and may do any of the following things, that is to say,

(a) call for returns ;

(b) direct the transfer of any suit or appeal from any such court to any other court of equal or superior jurisdiction;

(c)

make and issue general rules and prescribe forms for regulating the practice and proceedings of such courts;

(d) prescribe forms in which books, entries and accounts shall be kept by the officers of any such courts; and

(e) settle tables of fees to be allowed to the sheriff, attorneys, and all clerks and officers of courts:

provided that such rules, forms and tables shall not be inconsistent with the provisions of any law for the time being in force, and shall require the previous approval, in the case of the high court at Calcutta, of the Governor-General in Council, and in other cases of the local Government.

108. (1) Each high court may by its own rules provide as it thinks fit for the exercise, by one or more judges, or by division courts constituted by two or more judges of the high court, of the original and appellate jurisdiction vested in the court.

(2) The chief justice of each high court shall determine what judge in each case is to sit alone, and what judges of the court, whether with or without the chief justice, are to constitute the several division courts.

108. (1) The Governor-General in Council may, by order, transfer any territory or place from the jurisdiction of one to the jurisdiction of any other of the high courts, and authorise any high court, to exercise all or any portion of its jurisdiction in any part of British India not included within the limits for which the high court was established, and also to exercise any such jurisdiction in respect of any British subject for the time being within any part of India outside British India.

(2). The Governor-General in Council shall transmit to the Secretary of State an authentic copy of every order made under this section.

(3) His Majesty may signify, through the Secretary of State in Council, his disallowance of any such order, and such disallowance shall make void and null the order as from the day on which the Governor-General notifies that he has received intimation of the disallowance, but no act done by any high court before such notification shall be deemed invalid by reason only of such disallowance.

110. (1) The Governor-General, each Governor, lieutenant-governor and chief commissioner and each of the members of the Executive Council, of the