L E G A L

S Y S T E M O F
B A N G L A D E S H
MD. JAHID-AL-MAMUN
LECTURER
DEPARTMENT OF LAW
UNIVERSITY OF DHAKA
SESSION 10
H I S T O R Y O F L AW - M A K I N G
 Law making by specialized
Law-making by the organ organ which was not
of the state: recent vintage. simultaneously executive:
little more than 300 years.

Pre-British Laws were promulgated by

emperors and kings
Councils of elders or wise

Era
men
religious leaders.

Mughal emperors
Judges interpret laws and
promulgated laws as
make rules.
Farmans
 HISTORY OF
L AW - M A K I N G
AUTHORITIES
 Portuguese (20th May 1498):
Kalikut at Malabar

Dutch

Europeans Danes
in India
English

French (17th Century)

 The Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the
East Indies.

The East Charter granted by Queen Elizabeth I (31st December 1600).

India
Company: Juristic person, legislative power to make by-laws,
Company ordinances, etc., for good governance of the company and its servants;
to punish offences against them by fine or imprisonment;

Abolished: 1857.
E S TA B L I S H M E N T
O F
P R E S I D E N C I E S
 Madras
• 22 July 1639
• Francis Day acquired a piece of land from Raja Chandragiri for EIC at
Madraspatnam
• White City;
• Established St . George Fort in 1640
• Administrator of St George: Agent
• Agent’s power to decide both civil and criminal cases in which
English People involved
 Bombay
• Portuguese acquired the island of Bombay from Sultan Bahadur Shah
in 1534
• King Alfonsus VI gave Bombay to the King of England, Charles II.
• King transferred Bombay to EIC with an annual rent of 10 GBP.
• Deputy Governor as Administrator
• Charter of 1668: EIC to make laws.
 Calcutta
• 24 August 1690
• EIC constructed Fort William for its Factory by the side of the Hoogly
River
• 1698: Azim-Ush-Shan granted zamindari rights of three villages-
Calcutta, Sutanuti and Govindapur as to EIC.
• EIC appointed a collector to control the administration of three
villages.
 THE
SEPOHI
MUTIN
Y 1857
 L A W -
M A K I N G
U N D E R
E A S T I N D I A
C O M P A N Y
A N D
C O L O N I A L
R U L E
Charters of EIC: the power to make
laws and enforce them.

Modelled on the powers of making

by-laws commonly exercised by
ordinary municipal and commercial
corporations.
 • Authorized EIC to “make…reasonable laws,
constitutions, orders, and ordinances, for the
good government of the company,
• and of all masters, mariners, and officers, …
employed in any of their voyages….
• and their pleasure to revoke or alter same….
• the said laws … be reasonable and not contrary or
repugnant to the laws, statutes, or custom of this our
realm.”
• Repeated in Charter of 1609 (King James I)

Charter of 1600
(Elizabeth I)
 Charter of 1726

King George II empowered Governors and Councils in the three Presidencies to:

Make by-laws, rules and ordinances for good government and regulation

of several corporations created; and

Inhabitants of the several towns, places and factories

Interference by the British Parliament
Financial instability of the company and certain of its gross mismanagement in Bengal

East India Company Act 1772 (also known as Regulating Act 1772)

Empowered the Governor General and Council to make rules and regulations for the good order and civil government of the
territories in their charge,

But the same was not to be valid until registered in the Supreme Court with consent and approbation of that Court.

[s 36 of the Regulating Act 1772]

Act 1772 avoided the recognition of Dewani to the Company by Mughal.

Mughal Empire in 18th Century

Nawab

Diwan to Company

Charters regulated internal matters of the

company, legislative power extends to the
administration of Bengal.
Prior to 1793: no general Code of laws and regulations in British
India.

Lord Cornwallis made provisions by Regulation XLI to effect some

reforms in the legislative methods and forms.

Each regulation was to have: (a) title expressing subject; (b)

Preamble reciting the reasons for its enactment; (c) divided into
sections and clauses; (d) subject in the opposite of margin as
concisely as possible; (e) regulations enacted in a year were to be
recorded in the judicial department and then numbered, printed and
published.
 MERCI
B E A U C O U P.