the present system of regular and special appeal, under which the whole power of the highest court is exercised simultaneously by halfa-dozen Bences of two Judges each, working like a mill to clear off a multitude of cases, very badly placed before them. This multitude of decisions of badly or insufficiently argued cases is a very great evil. It deprives the decisions of the court of real authority, and at the same time it embarrasses and makes vicious the proceedings of the lower courts, who are always panting for precedents and legalities, and who seem generally to seize upon the worst decisions The LieutenantGovernor has dwelt upon this at page 96 of the Administration Report for last year.

The difficulty about law reporting, alluded to by Mr. Stephen, is really the same as the above. We Law reporting. cannot blame reports which give all the judgments, though they do much harm. On the other hand, the Lieutenant-Governor could but feel it most objectionable that an irresponsible knot of lawyers like the law reporters should sit as it were in judgment on the Judges, and decide what is to be taken as good and what rejected as bad. Under the present system, Mr. Stephen's proposal to bring the law reports under the control of the Legislative Department would be an improvement; but the true remedy is, the Lieutenant-Governor thought, to reduce the quantity and add to the weight of the judgments of the High Court, and then let them all be reported.

Con

One important part of Mr. Stephen's proposals in connection with this part of the subject cannot, High Court Rulings. however, be passed over, viz. that the Government should have power to consult the High Court on abstract points, and that the Court should decide on these with the same authority as in regular cases. This was, in fact, the practice in old times; and looking to the circumstances of the country, it was, in the Lieutenant-Governor's view, by far the best. The English judicial habit is to avoid generalisation as much as possible, to narrow the decisions as much as possible to the particular cases, never to decide on a broad issue when a case can be decided on a narrow one. sequently questions affecting the whole well-being of the country are sometimes kept in doubt and contradictions for years, tossed about according to the interests of private parties, the necessities of lawyers, the varieties of decisions of Benches in various phases of similar cases, and so on. It is most desirable that when a question of great importance arises, the High Court should set at rest the law, leaving to the Legislature a clear path either to accept the law so settled, or to amend it, and saving the country all the turmoil, expense, and excitement of long legal campaigns, in which the lawyers are the only persons who reap any advantage.

With respect to Privy Council appeals, if the High Court business is elevated as above proposed, there Privy Council Appeals. will be infinitely less necessity for an appeal to so distant and expensive a tribunal as the Privy Council,—an appeal which is practically forbidden to all but millionaires, whose appetite for litigation is as unlimited as their purse. The Lieutenant-Governor

quite agreed with those who think that there should be no appeal to the Privy Council on facts. The High Court is constituted in a way to be much better fitted than the Privy Council to deal with Indian facts, consisting as it does of of men of local experience sitting together with lawyers. The Privy Council contains, and it may be said by law can contain, not a single man of local experience and knowledge of the language and people of India. The decisions of fact in the Privy Council have almost necessarily rested with one or two old heads of the Calcutta Supreme Court, who, however able and experienced individually, ought hardly to be allowed to overrule on questions of fact the High Court, which is, or ought to be, the better qualified tribunal. In former days they seldom did so; latterly a great deal, and it is, the Lieutenant-Governor believed, notorious that their decisions in this respect have not of late given satisfaction in this country. There is, the Lieutenant-Governor thought, no reason whatever for such an appeal on the facts to the Privy Council.

As regards appeal on points of law, the Lieutenant-Governor did not propose in India to confine appeal to submission of a case stated, thinking it better to let courts of revision judge, and state a case for themselves, if necessary. But the Privy Council being so distant, and not constituted for administrative action, and the High Court being thoroughly competent to state a case, the Lieutenant-Governor would absolutely confine appeal to the Privy Council to very important questions of law on a case stated by the High Court.

If, however, appeal on facts to the Privy Council must be retained (and, as far as the Lieutenant-Governor could see, only a few English lawyers would benefit by this), then most assuredly some Judges of Indian local experience should sit on that tribunal. There are many such who would be very glad to act for a very moderate remuneration. Even in that case, however, the Lieutenant-Governor would certainly confine appeals to cases valued at over a lakh of rupees, and in no case would he allow any appeal direct from original or district courts to the Privy Council.

When an appeal is made to the Privy Council, execution should not, the Lieutenant-Governor thought, be stayed except in cases where the High Court think it equitable so to do. The views put forward in Mr. Hobhouse's minute on this subject entirely commanded His Honor's assent. Nothing could be more unjust than that a litigant, who has been worsted in the highest court of this country, should be able to harass his adversary and evade justice by entering an appeal to the Privy Council, which he may not eventually prosecute, or which may lie by for years.

Executive supervision.

The Lieutenant-Governor thoroughly agreed with Mr. Stephen and those who think that the executive supervision of the courts should be in the hands of the Government, and that no purely English lawyer, however able, is competent to undertake this. This view was enunciated in that part of the last Administration Report already quoted, and the question is even now under the consideration of the Govern. ment of India.

If Mr. Stephen's plan for convening and arranging provincial or large district courts be adopted, the mode of working them must a good deal depend on the nature of the executive arrangements adopted. If we are to have compact and comparatively small administrations in one block, it might be done by having a Judicial Commissioner in each, under whom the working might be placed. If we have a Government of several different provinces as Bengal now is, and must have great Commissionerships of Behar, Assam, &c., and so on, it might be worked by, or under direction of, Commissioners of provinces.

Short of radical reform of the whole system of administering justice, and putting aside as a separate question the executive supervision of the courts, the most important point requiring settlement in India is the constitution of the district or provincial appellate courts inferior to the High Court, and the rules under which appeal to them, or revision by them, is to be regulated. The LieutenantGovernor believed it would be found that the Judges of the High Court agreed with the other authorities in most decidedly thinking that the present local appellate courts must be reformed, and stronger courts in larger districts, divisions, or provinces, substituted. His Honor pressed this proposal on the consideration of the Government of India. All the authorities were agreed that reform is called for. There was a very fair consensus of opinion as to the way in which it may best be effected, and the sooner it was taken in hand, he thought, the better.

Mr. Hobhouse's scheme of lawreporting.

a

Since the letter containing the above views was written, a scheme of law-reporting has been promulgated for opinion by the Government of India, to which the Lieutenant-Governor has not felt himself able to agree. It is proposed that reporter, or staff of reporters, be maintained for each High Court, and be appointed, removed, and paid by Government; that every Court or Bench shall have the right of forbidding the report by a Government reporter of a case decided by itself; that the High Court at large shall have the right of commanding the report by the Government reporters of a case decided by itself, or by any of its divisions or branches, in such form as they think right; that, subject to such powers in the Judges, the reporters shall be under the control of the Government; that there shall be a central editor or chief reporter, also appointed; removed, and paid by Government, to whom the several provincial reporters shall send their reports when prepared; that the chief reporter shall finally decide (subject always to the powers reserved above to the High Courts) what cases shall be the subject of a report, and as to the fulness and form of each report; that the reports, when published by the chief reporter, shall have the same authority all over British India as the reports of the High Court cases now have in their respective provinces; that no judge shall be bound to hear any other report cited, or shall receive or treat it as an authority binding on him.

The Lieutenant-Governor does not think this scheme would work well. He has a strong objection to allowing a lawyer reporter to sit in judgment on the judges. He does not believe the High Courts at

large would ever be got to select cases to be reported; failing which everything would centre in the chief reporter, and it would, the Lieutenant-Governor thinks, be better to make him a superior High Court for all India than to give him the enormous irresponsible powers proposed. His Honor adhered to his views already expressed, that we should first improve the judicial system, so as to get more weighty and well-considered decisions, and then merely secure their authenticity; and, secondly, enable Government to call in the High Court to decide any particular question of importance propounded to them. If we are to interfere with the free use of judgments as delivered, he would go the whole length of Mr. Stephen's plan, otherwise he would not interfere with free reporting.

Execution of decrees.

A question was raised upon a remark of the Judges of the High Court in their Report on Civil Justice for 1870, in which they deprecated the system which at present obtains in respect to the execution of decrees. The Court observed that "process in execution is protracted over 20, 30, 40, or even 50 years, remote descendants being frequently called upon to pay the debts of their ancestors." The Lieutenant-Governor concurred generally with the views of the High Court, that a legislative limit should be imposed on the execution of decrees. His Honor took also the opportunity of saying that he thought that decrees should not be assignable by sale or otherwise. He believed that the absence of anything like the old English prohibition against selling rights not in possession, and the permitting complete free trade in claims and decrees, together with the benamee system, were the most fertile causes of our courts being abused, and he feared that the evils of excessive delay in the execution of decrees would hardly be efficiently met with justice to decree-holders, unless the Government dealt radically with the vicious benamee system.

The total number of suits decided by the civil courts in which

Litigation in which Government was concerned.

Government was concerned amounted during the year to 296, of which 198 were original cases and 98 appeals. Of the original suits, 128 were decided in favour of Government and 38 against it, while 31 were compromised, and 1 transferred to the original side of the High Court. Of the appeals, 75 were decided in favour of Government and 16 against it, and 7 were remanded for re-trial. The total number of judgments favorable to Government was 203, against 54 unfavorable to it, the percentage of the former on the total number of the judgments given being 78.98. The percentage of favorable judgments in the preceding year 1871-72 was 85.6.

The total value of suits in which Government was concerned was Rs. 17,94,852; the value of those in which it was defendant being Rs. 14,36,578, and the value of those in which it was plaintiff being Rs. 3,58,274. In suits brought against Government, the aggregate value of the cases dismissed amounted to Rs. 5,11,089, and the aggregate value of the cases in which decrees were obtained amounted to Rs. 2,07,935; but the greater part of this sum, amounting to Rs. 1,55,381, represented the five cases of Radhapersad Sing of Shahabad which are

now in appeal before the High Court; so excluding the cases that are now under appeal, the actual amount of liabilities which Government incurred during the year was Rs. 44,513.

The value of the suits in which Government was plaintiff amounted to Rs. 3,58,273, and the aggregate value of the cases in which it obtained. decrees amounted to Rs. 3,57,873; only one suit of the value of Rs. 400 was dismissed, and this is now under appeal.

The actual disbursements of Government during the year amounted to Rs. 58,102.

Court of Wards' cases.

The Court of Wards' cases conducted under Government agency were disposed of as follows:

Decided in favour of Court of Wards
Decided against Court of Wards
Remanded

Compromised

Small Cause Court establishments.

A revision of the establishment of Mofussil Small Cause Courts was undertaken during the year. In many places where the business was very light and easily disposed of by a peripatetic judge sitting only a few days in each month, large and expensive offices had been kept up in a very unnecessary way. It has now been arranged that where several courts are presided over by one judge, each court shall have one or two clerks attached to it permanently on salaries varying according to the responsibility involved, while the rest of the office establishment shall travel with the judge and dispose of the work at each place as its turn comes round.