IN the annals of our judiciary, the period from 1861 to 1919 was one of great changes and colonial expansion. An entirely alien legal system was foisted upon us, giving our traditional laws and panchayati system of justice a quiet burial. Vernacular schools were denied grants while English education was introduced, and schoolboys became anglicised. They would later serve in the lower ranks of the colonial administration.
A part of this policy, guided no doubt by Lord Macaulay’s famous minute, was the High Courts Act, 1861. The first three chartered High Courts were set up for the presidencies of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras under Letters Patent granted by Queen Victoria in 1862. This was followed by High Courts at Allahabad (1866), Mysore (1884), Patna (1916) and Lahore 1919 (a few weeks before the Jallianwala atrocity). The Penal Code, the Contract Act, the Evidence Act and the Codes of Civil & Criminal Procedures also come into force in the 1860s.
The Lahore High Court covered the Punjab province from Peshawar to Delhi and beyond. On the day of Independence, East Punjab High Court came up at Simla and assumed jurisdiction over present Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and large parts of present Himachal (except the princely hill states). Later, Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU) High Court got merged with it in 1956. The Court had moved to Chandigarh a year earlier. Delhi High Court, a bench of the parent Punjab High Court, separated in 1966, and surprisingly, Himachal right up to Kangra, Kulu, Lahaul and Spiti came under a bench of the Delhi High Court from 1966, till the Himachal Pradesh High Court was created in 1970.
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Denne historien er fra November 16, 2020-utgaven av India Legal.
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PIL, Difficult To Swallow?
In a recent ruling, the Bombay High Court lamented the increasing number of frivolous public interest litigations being filed in courts and echoed the sentiments of the Supreme Court that such litigations are the bane of the judicial system. Is there any way to restrict their misuse?
Till Infertility Do Us Part...
The Calcutta High Court slammed a husband for initiating divorce proceedings due to his wife's infertility and asked him to be a pillar of support for her. Courts have often taken an empathetic view in such matters
IS THAT LEGAL?
Ignorance of law is no excuse. Here are answers to frequently asked queries regarding matters that affect us on a day-to-day basis
The Big Lie
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Flying into the Sunset
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Star Crossed
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Walkouts in the UK
An estimated half a million workers have gone on strike, shutting down thousands of schools, public transport and border disruption. It is the biggest day of industrial action for more than a decade.
Myanmar's Misery
Two years after the military coup ousted the elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, the brutal crackdown by the junta on so-called \"insurgents\" and civilian protesters has reached a new level with the use of air strikes, a new and deadly tactic in the ongoing civil war.
AMERICA'S ANGST
From messy, divisive politics to a series of mass shootings, and now black officers brutally beating another black man to death as seen in bodycam videos, America's domestic convulsions are cause for serious introspection
JUSTICE LEAGUE
There are few judicial appointment procedures in the world that are completely bereft of the overarching presence of either the executive or the legislature, or both. In the end, the judge is left with all the powers vested in him/her by the constitution to uphold the rule of law, within an atmosphere of external influences