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MODULE I
Cornwallis and Plan of 1787

The Governor-Generalship of Lord Cornwallis from 1786 to 1793 constituted a very

important period in Indian Legal History. Cornwallis introduced changes in the judicial
system thrice, in 1787, 1790, and then finally in 1793.

He introduced for the first time the principle of administration according to law.
The judicial scheme of 1781, introduced during Warren Hasting’s governor-generalship
wanted to create a division of revenue and judiciary functions/.
But many senior members of company did not like it and they thought separation was costly
for the company.
When Warren Hastings left India, they openly started to criticize this.

Thus the Court of Directors on 12th April 1786 directed the Cornwallis to vest in one person
the revenue, judicial, and magisterial functions.
Cornwallis followed the ordered and introduced the plan of 1787.

 PROVISIONS OF THE ACT OF 1787 A.D.

The directors gave instructions to lord Cornwallis to bring simplicity, economy and
purity into the judicial system.

 The existing separation of the revenue and the judicial functions was removed and
both the functions were united. This made the work of revenue collection more
important than the justice.

 The existing 36 districts were reorganized and the number of districts was reduced to
23. And this made it possible to increase the salaries of collectors.


The scheme was introduced through 2 Regulations.
First Regulation dealt with Revenue Administration and it was introduced on 8th June
1787.
Second Regulation dealt with Administration of Justice and it was enacted on 27 June
1787.
 In each district a company’s English covenanted servant was appointed as collector
who will collect revenue as well as will decide the all cases relating to revenue.

Collector also worked as Judge in the district moffusil Diwani adalat to decide civil
cases, succession cases and land related cases like boundaries etc.
The Revenue Court was known as mal adalat

Appeals from mal adalat went to the Board of Revenue at Calcutta.

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And finally to the Governor General

In Diwani adalat appeals in the cases where matters involving more than one
thousand rupees went to the Sadar Diwani Adalat, where the Governor General and
the council handled the cases.
Appeal from Sadar Diwani Adalats went to the King in Council.

In each adalat a Registrar was appointed as a subordinate officer to help collectors.

Registrar was given the power to handle and decide cases up to rupees 200 and orders
passed by him became valid when it were signed by the judge of the mofussil adalat.

As a magistrate the collector was authorized to try and arrest criminals in petty
offences.
The magistrate got the power to hear cases against the Englishmen who committed
crimes against Indians In this case the magistrate made inquiry and if he felt that there
was a ground for trial, he would send the Englishman accused to the Calcutta for trial
and if Indian complainant was poor, the government paid all the expenses of traveling
to Calcutta.

DEFECT OF 1787

The scheme of 1787 was based on a fusion of revenue and judicial function in one
person, the collector. All strings of control passed in the district passed through his
hands. Although theoretically the scheme was convenient, simple and economic but it
was not conducive to secure people’s liberty, protect property and promote their
general welfare. The collector functioned practically without any control. The
distance between the Government at Calcutta and the districts and the inadequate
means of communication made it quite impossible for the Government to control the
collector’s actions. Thus there was no adequate safeguard in the system against
misuse of power.

The scheme of 1787 was energetic but primarily from the point of collection of
revenue. The administration of justice has been regarded as subservient to the revenue
collection.

CONCLUSION

Though by the judicial reforms of 1787, cornwallis united the judicial office and
administration in the hands of one Englishman. i.e, the collector. It was considered a
better step to suit the then existing conditions than the earlier separation of the
judiciary and the executive

Criminal Justice system

 In order to improve the law and order situation and punish the criminals severely,
Cornwallis introduced the vital reforms in 1790 AD.
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 He was suspicious of the attitude of the Indian officers and he decided not to give any
important judicial and administrative office of the responsibility to any Indian.

In 1790 Cornwallis tried to reform the criminal justice system which was following
Muslim criminal law system and mofussil fozdari adalats were controlled by Kazis,
muftis and moulvies.
Everything was controlled by Naib Nawab Raza khan and who was not answerable to
anyone including Remembrancer.
The salaries of the criminal court judges were very low which encouraged them to get
involved in corruption.
Thus Low salaries kept honest and educated people away from this job and every
corrupt man wanted to become the criminal court judge.
Fozdari adalats did not give fast justice, it delayed the justice.

 In order to improve the law and order situation and punish the criminals severely,
Cornwallis introduced the vital reforms in 1790 a.d.

 He was suspicious of the attitude of the Indian officers and he decided not to give any
important judicial and administrative office of the responsibility to any Indian.

PROVISIONS OF THE JUDICIAL PLAN OF 1790

Criminal justice system – transferred to English servants from Muslim law officers.
Muslim law officers became advisors to the court.
And criminal cases should be decided quickly.
Districts got the magistrates, above them were Courts of Circuit and above them was
Sadar Nizamat Adalat.
Sadar Nizamat Adalat was shifted to Calcutta from Murshidabad and Nawab was
divested of his control over the adalat.
In Sadar Adalat Governor General and council members sat as judges and Muslim
law officers helped them to understand the Muslim law.
Mofussil Fozdari adalats were abolished and on their place four court of circuits were
established.
All districts in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa were arranged into four divisions of Patna,
Calcutta, Murshidabad and Dhaka.
The Court of circuit was a moving court and it travelled from district to district in the
given division.
Court of Circuit consisted of 2 companies covenanted servants and Muslim law
officers help them.
The new criminal judicial system was inaugurated on January 1, 1791 and office of
remembrance was abolished which was created in the time of Warren Hastings.

The salaries of the criminal court judges were increased and for the first time
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Governor General took the complete control of criminal justice system in Bengal,
Bihar and Orissa.
In 1792, company government sanctioned small sum as a payment to the prosecutors
and witnesses who spent the days in court of circuit for their journey to attend the
trials.
The criminals who completed the punishment, when came out of jail they were paid
money to maintain themselves for a month.

Criminal Court System 1790 – Defects and Changes

Cornwallis introduced, made changes in criminal system in 1790

•Lower Level - Magistrate
•Middle Level - Courts of Circuit
•Top Level – Sadar Nizamat Adalat

The judges of the district diwani adalats acted as magistrates.

The main duty of the magistrate was to arrest the accused person; hold inquiries into
the commission of crime find the evidence, if evidence was found against accused
then commit them for trial to the Court of Circuit which visited each district once in
six months.
Cornwallis had instituted 4 Courts of Circuit to try criminal cases arising in Bengal,
Bihar and Orissa.
In 1802 court of circuit tried 2,820 cases, charges involving 5667 accused persons.

1790 - Types of Crimes People committed –

•Dacoity
•Burglary
•Gang robbery
•Murder
•Rape etc just named few

The main defect in this type of system was that accused was tried after long time after
the commission of crime.
In this period the accused was kept in a jail.
If accused was innocent then he suffered in justice.
Limited number of judges. – Only one magistrate in the district with civil and
criminal both functions.

Defects of Scheme –
Lot of work for court of circuits
No provision to supervise the collectors, who got unlimited powers
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Cornwallis understood the defects of the above schemes and He introduced the plan
of 1793.

The Plan of 1793

JUDICIAL PLAN OF 1793 A.D

 Cornwallis code.

 Separation of judicial and revenue functions.

 Reorganisation of civil courts.

 Native law officers.

 Courts to control executive machinery.

 Abolition of court fees.

 Reforms in criminal administration.

 Legal profession.

 Uniform pattern of regulations.

 Permanent settlement of land revenue.

One of important points as per this plan was that no executive officer was to exercise any
judicial power in any shape or form except at the higher lever.
The executive officers were to be placed under the jurisdiction of the adalats.
Even if the government was party in matters of property it had to be bound by court
adjudication.

In this way for the first time in India the powers of Judiciary and Executive were separated
and executive was placed under the judiciary.
Lord Cornwallis wanted that courts should become the protectors of the rights and property
of individuals from corrupt officers as well as government.
Plan of 1793 tried to protect the private rights of every person, promote public advantage,
general benefit.

The policy of separating the two functions judicial and executive was put into practice by
Regulation II of 1793 which abolished the mal adalats and transferred the suits triable there to
the mofussil diwani adalats.

The power of the administration of civil justice was taken away from the collectors and given
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the diwani adalats as well as collectors lost the power of deciding revenue cases.
The collectors lost all the types of judicial powers, functions.

Section X of the Regulation III made collectors and all the executive officers personally
liable and could be required to pay damages to the injured party for violations of regulations,
laws.

Lord Cornwallis gave power to the Indians to bring, file cases against the government if they
felt their right was abused.

A diwani adalat was instituted in each district and in each of the three cities of Patna,
Murshidabad and Dacca.

With this Plan Cornwallis abolished the court fees, so poor Indians could also file the suits in
judiciary.

Cornwallis took the steps towards development of Legal Profession

RE-ORGANISATION OF CIVIL COURTS

 Cornwallis reorganised the civil courts and appointed 28 judges in the districts,and
further strengthened the four courts of circuit,which now also became civil courts of
appeal.

 The four courts of circuit were called provincial courts of appeal having headquarters
at patna,dacca,calcutta and murshidabad.

NATIVE LAW OFFICERS

 The native law officers were authorized to assist all the courts by expounding the
hindu and muslim laws as the cases required.

 Regulation xii of the code specially provided that all native law officers belonging to
various courts would be appointed by the governor-general

COURTS TO CONTROL EXECUTIVE MACHINARY

 Section 10 of regulation iii provided that not only collectors but all other executive
officers of the government would be subjected to the court’s jurisdiction for all their
official acts and it was also stated that they would be personally liable for any
violation of the regulation.

 This was done to observe the rule of law.

ABOLITION OF COURT FEES

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 In order to make justice cheap ,lord cornwallis abolished the court fees which were
imposed earlier in 1787 a.d.

 It was provided that apart from the pleader’s fee and the actual charge of summoning
the witnesses,no other fee would be charged from the litigants.

REFORMS IN CRIMINAL COURTS

 Though in 1790 vital changed were introduced in the administration of criminal

justice ,in order to keep the whole administration of justice integrated and co-
ordinated,certain changes were again introduced in 1793 a.d. with this aim in view
regulation ix provided for some modification in the old set-up.

LEGAL PROFESSION

 By regulation vii of 1793 a.d ,the profession of law was created and organised in
india,so as to have well-organised and regulated professional lawyers.

UNIFORM PATTERN OF REGULATIONS

 So far regulations were issued without any prescribed uniform system.some of them
were in the manuscript form,others were printed but no uniform pattern was adopted
in drafting them.

 Regulation xli of the code of 1793 provided that henceforth regulations would contain
a preamble which will state the reasons for enacting the regulations.

 Every regulation was to have a title to express in brief the subject matter of the
regualtion.

 Whenever any regualtion was modified ,full reference to the original regulation was
required to be given.

It was made necessary to divide each regulation into sections and sections were divided into
sub-sections and clauses,which were duly numbered in serial order.

PERMANENT SETTLEMENT OF THE LAND REVENUE

 In 1789 a.d as a result of sir john shore’s efforts a settlement for 10 years was made
.in 1793 a.d cornwallis urged pitt and dundas to sanction the permanence of the
settlement.

 By this the zamindars were regarded as land owners.

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 They were required to pay 9/10 of the revenue collection to government yhrough the
talukdars and collectors and those holding less land were required to pay directly
through sub-collectors.

 Efforts were made to protect the cultivators and ryots from oppressions and corruption
of revenue officers.

CONCLUSION….

 Thus the whole system under the regulations of 1793 introduced many reforms.

 Sir george barlow assisted corniwallis in drafting a single set of 48 regulations which
was printed and issued on 1st may 1793 a.d was known as the corniwallis code.

 It gained a great reputation amongst the anglo-indian administrators that in 1797-1799

it was introduced into bombay and forced upon madras in 1802 a.d

In 1772 Warren Hastings Started the process of separation of judiciary and executive and
Cornwallis completed that process.

Defects and Changes Made in 1793 Plan

Cornwallis left India after establishing the plan of 1793.

Cornwallis did not stay in India to see the actual implementation of plan of 1793.
After Cornwallis left Shore took the charge and became the Governor General

The Problems and Defects of Plan of 1793 –

Large volume of Cases and Pending Suits, which delayed the Justice.
Example – In 1795 the number of Pending suits in district Adalat in Burdwan was 30
thousand.

But this shows that the British People gave power and confidence that Indians could also
demand justice and as a result there was an increase of suits.

The good thing was that Collectors were aware about the problem that numbers of pending
suits were increasing and it would destroy the purpose of Court and Justice System.
Same Was Happening in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa increase in filing of cases and increase in
number of Pending suits.

In Revenue cases delay meant collection of revenue was affected.

In three provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa only 26 diwani adalats were established.
The jurisdiction of registers and munsiffs was very small.
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There was need to increase the number of courts and judges but Shore did not increase, he
and his team believed that already courts are more and this is temporary phase, but shore was
wrong, as the plan of Cornwallis encouraged the more and more Indians to file the suits as
courts were became accessible to Indians.