TOPIC

ADMINISTRATIONS OF THE PRESIDENCY TOWNS OF SURAT,

MADRAS, BOMBAY, CALCUTTA
 ADMINISTRATION OF SURAT
• The foremost task before the East India Company was to find out a suitable place for setting
up its establishments. Surat was chosen as it was an important commercial centre and had a
status of an international port.
• In 1612 after a clash Portuguese were completely ousted from the area by the Britishers &
they established their first settlement in 1612 in Surat.
• In 1615 King James I sent Sir Thomas Roe to Jehangir and obtained Dastak through a Firman
and he granted certain concessions to them.
• By the treaty of 1618 the English were allowed to live according to their own
laws, religion, culture and customs.
• There were rest houses, warehouses and residential quarters. There also existed a categorization in the
servants of the company.
• The disputes between the English men were adjudicated by English laws & the disputes between the
English men and Indians were adjudicated by the local laws, i.e. Indian laws.
• Executives were the sole authority. Non legal persons giving justice on their own.
• Transfer of Surat to Bombay in 1687.
 ADMINISTRATION OF MADRAS

• In 1665 Madras got the status of a Presidency Town and it was raised from the position of a subordinate to the
Presidency of Surat.
• In 1639 Francis Day acquired a piece of land from the Raja Of Chandragiri to establish a factory in Masulipatnam,
which was granted to them along with Madraspatnam a small village near the company’s fort, St. George, which was
also to be govern by the Britishers.
• The fortified settlement was also known as ‘ The White Town’ whereas the village surrounding the fort i.e.
Madraspatnam was known as ‘Black Town’ because Indians lived there.

• The Administration of Madras can be studied under three phases:

1. 1639 - 1665
2. 1666 - 1686
3. 1687 – 1726
First Phase ( 1639 – 1665 )
The establishment of two types of courts i.e.

I. The Court of Agent and Council

II. The Choultry Courts
• In White Town, the court of Agent and Council decided both civil and criminal cases. Again the judicial
functions were exercised by the executives.
• In Black Town, choultry courts administered the functions of judiciary, also to the natives of Madraspatnam.
• Choultry courts were headed by the village headmen i.e. Adigars.
• There were no definite procedures to impart justice and corruption was also rampant in the area.
Second Phase ( 1666 – 1686 )
• The Charter of 1661 granted by Charles II brought a great change in the existing system.

• The Governor, Streynsham reorganized the entire judicial set up existing then and introduced
reforms in the working of courts.
• The Choultry courts were reorganized. The number of judges were increased from 2 to 3.

• The Choultry courts were empowered to hear cases only up to 50

Pagodas.
Third Stage ( 1687 – 1726 )

• The main feature of this stage of the administration of Madras was the establishment of three
types of courts viz. Admiralty courts, Mayor courts and the Choultry courts.
• Admiralty Courts: Admiralty courts were established in Madras in 1686 under the charter of
1683.
• The main aims of the Admiralty courts were to control piracy, to deal with only mercantile
cases, maritime nature cases.
• Sir John Biggs was appointed as the chief judge of this court, who was also known as Judge
Advocate.
• It became so successful that it superseded the High Court of Judicature and also functioned as
an appellate court for the Mayor’s Court.
• Mayor’s Court: A Corporation was set up by the company at Madras on September 29th 1688
under the Crown’s Charter of 1687. It was created with the purpose of associating natives with
the Englishmen.
• The Corporations consisted of an English Mayor, 12 Aldermen and 60 - 120 Burgesse. Out of
12 aldermen, 3 must be English and the rest could be natives.
• This court had civil and criminal jurisdiction within the presidency town
of Madras.
• Choultry Courts: With the establishment of the Mayor’s court, the jurisdiction of the Choultry
court was considerably reduced.
• The jurisdiction of the Choultry courts was declined to smaller offences and in civil cases it
amounted to two Pagodas.
 ADMINISTRATION OF BOMBAY
• The Island of Bombay was under the rule of a Gujarati King Sultan Bahadur until 1534 after
which it came under the rule of Potuguese.
• The Portugal King Aljonsus transferred the island of Bombay to the British King Charles II as a
dowry gift.
• King Charles II transferred Bombay to the East India Company under the Charter of 1668 for a
nominal annual rent, as he found it very inconvenient to exercise control over Bombay directly
from England.
• The administration of Bombay can be studied under three stages:
– 1. 1668 – 1683
– 2. 1683 – 1690
– 3. 1718 - 1726
 First Stage ( 1668 – 1683 )

• The Island of Bombay was divided into two territorial divisions.

• A Court of Judicature was established with 5 judges out of which 3 judges formed the quorum in
each of these divisions.
• There was an English Custom Officer in each divisions who also was the President of the
respective court.
• There also existed a common superior court for both these divisions.
Second Stage ( 1683 – 1690 )

• The British King Charles II by the Charter of 1683 empowered the company in India to establish an
Admiralty court . The functioning of the court was similar to that of the admiralty court at Madras and it
decided civil cases, criminal cases & maritime disputes.

• In 1690, Siddhi Yakub attacked Bombay, this attack caused Bombay a very weak
position and remained in the same position until 1718. This period was called
“The Dark Period”.
• Under the Bombay Judicial Plan of 1672 , Portugal was completely abolished from
Bombay and English law was introduced in its place.
• The administration of criminal justice was also reorganized by the Judicial Plan of 1672.
• In 1672 Panchayats were also reorganized. They were authorised to decide cases
amongst the persons of their own castes, who mutually agreed to submit their disputes to
arbitration, otherwise the disputes had to be brought to the Court of Judicature for
adjudication.
Third Stage ( 1687 – 1726 )

• The English judicial system in Bombay revived again with the establishment of a Court of Judicature Under Lawrence Parker
on March 25, 1718.
• It consisted of 10 judges, the Chief Judge and 5 judges would be of the English origin & the remaining 4 would be Indians
from different communities.
• English judges formed the quorum and enjoyed superior status than that of the Indian judges who were called “Black Justices”

• The court administered justice in a rough, cheap and speedy way ; no technical rules, no legal
procedures were adopted.
• The Jurisdiction of the court extended to civil, criminal and military matters. Appeal from this
court would lay to the Court of Governor in Council.
 ADMINISTRATION OF CALCUTTA

• The foundation of Fort William was laid by an Englishman, Jab Charnock on August 24, 1690.
• In 1698, the East India Company obtained zamindari rights of three adjacent villages of Calcutta,
Sutanti and Govindpur from the grandson of Aurangzeb Prince Azimushshan who was the
Subedar of Bengal that time.
• In 1699, Calcutta was declared a Presidency and a President and Council was appointed to
administer this factory of Fort William.
• A collector was appointed to look in the administrative matters of these three
villages who later on became a part of the Governor and Council.
• Small cases were tried by the collector and the serious cases by Governor and
Council. Appeals were laid to the court of Governor and Council.
• Customs of the country were given importance in the administration of justice.

• The principles of Equity, Justice and Good Conscience were also applied.

• The trial of criminal cases were conducted according to Mughal pattern. The punishments were given
according to Islam.
 CONCLUSION
• It may be stated that the administration of justice in the settlements of the East India Company
before 1726 was essentially executive oriented.
• There was no separation between the executive and the Judiciary and the executive enjoyed
overriding power to appoint or remove the judges. Thus, Judiciary was subordinate to the
executive. This position prevailed in all the settlements of the company namely Surat, Madras,
Bombay and Calcutta.
• Judges was known professionals and did not possess adequate knowledge of law.
• The judgments delivered by the companies' courts were not recognized by the courts in
England as the judges of the companies’ courts were laymen without having adequate
knowledge of law and legal procedures.
• It was only through the charter of 1726 that a uniform judicial system was introduced in
the three Presidency towns of Bombay, Madras and Calcutta by the company.