LECTURE IX. THE PRIVY COUNCIL. Introduction-History of the Privy Council-Growth of its authority-Struggles to repress it-Its extravagant powers under the Tudors-First exercise of appellate jurisdiction over the Colonies-Loss of jurisdiction in EnglandNature of the present jurisdiction-Appeals from India-From the Supreme Court-From Bengal Sudder Court-From Madras and Bombay Sudder Courts-Fate of appeals-Power of the Council to entertain appeals-Limited by Legislature And by Charters-No appeals in cases of felony-Act of William the Fourth-Act of the Governor-General in Council-Charters of the High Court. tion. I HAVE now completed the history of the Courts Introducand Legislative authorities in India and have described the existing Legislatures. An account of the existing judicial system at present established and in force will complete the subject under discussion. The highest judicial authority exercised in India, to which all its Courts are ultimately subordinate, is the Privy Council. Although that tribunal sits in London and exercises supreme appellate authority over other Courts than those established in India, yet some account of it is necessary to give a complete view of the Indian system. The establishment of local Legislatures in India has tended very much to withdraw the regulation IX. LECTURE of Indian affairs from the immediate supervision and control of Parliament. Both in India and in the colonies, it is obviously necessary that the work of legislation should be conducted on the spot. It is impossible that the members of any foreign assembly should possess the experience and knowledge necessary to the task. Apart from the executive government the only institution in England with which India and the British colonies are habitually and directly brought into contact, is the Privy Council, which possesses the ultimate power of controlling the administration of justice. That power belongs in great measure to the Sovereign, and the Privy Council, to whom the exercise of the power is entrusted, has the ultimate appellate jurisdiction in all cases of a certain value which are not under the exclusive cognizance of the House of Lords; that is to say, it entertains appeals from India and from the colonies and also from the Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Courts in England, but not from the English Courts of Common Law and Equity. History of the Privy It would require a very minute examination of English history to explain how the Sovereign, as represented by the Privy Council on the one hand, and the House of Lords as a distinct branch of the Legislature on the other, became possessed of their respective jurisdictions, dividing between them the ultimate control over the administration of justice. In general terms, however, I may give IX. a brief outline of that history as it will explain the LECTURE circumstance of India being subject to the Sovereign in Council rather than to the House of Lords. For a long period in the early history of England, there was a great Council or Parliament on the one side, and a select Council which surrounded the King on the other. Legislative and judicial rights belonged to the larger assembly, but were constantly exercised by the smaller Council, who in matters of high importance convened the larger assembly in order to give greater stability to their acts. The assembling of the larger Council, however, gradually fell into disuse. And the fate of judicial authority was chiefly determined by the strong rivalry which grew up between the secular and ecclesiastical powers for the possession of separate and then superior jurisdiction. Towards the close of the 12th century, the three superior Courts of Common Law, with purely secular jurisdiction, were established. As they became more independent and distinct, the Privy Council, although it inherited strong claims to appellate jurisdiction and a power by virtue of Royal prerogative and early precedent to interfere with the proceedings of the Courts, was obliged to abstain from violating their independence. The Council represented the authority of Government, * I condense this account from a paper contributed by me to the Calcutta Review in 1862. |