India, its administration & progress / Sir John Strachey.

  • John Strachey
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: India, its administration & progress / Sir John Strachey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    magistrates in similar positions can be appointed to be justices of the peace or exercise such jurisdiction. It may happen, when a charge against a European British subject comes before a District magistrate, that a suffi- cient number of Europeans and Americans cannot be found in the district to constitute a jury; the case must then, under the orders of the High Court, be transferred for trial to another district where a jury can be formed. Thus a possibility is afforded for the occasional revival of the scandals and denials of justice and hardship which were common before 1872, when the trial of European British subjects could only take place before the High Courts, and complainants and witnesses were liable to be sent away to great distances from their homes. Fortunately this need hardly occur in practice, because the District magistrate, to whom alone these provisions apply, will usually take care to try in his own court no charge against a European British subject, but will transfer it, as he can always do, to one of his European subordinates, whose summary powers of deal- ing with such cases have not been touched. The law was certainly not changed for the better, but for practical purposes it remained much as it was before Act III. of 1884 was passed. The only other change was that District magistrates trying European British subjects with a jury were authorised to pass sentence of imprison- ment, which may extend to six months, or fine, which may extend to 2000 rupees, or both. It may be feared that the result of all this has been that we must leave to a distant future the hope that the Government of India will be able to place the law regarding jurisdiction over European British subjects on a satisfactory footing. The codification of the criminal law of British India
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