The Common Law in India - College of Social Sciences and ...

128 The Common Law in Indiain which they had been trained and to which theywere accustomed.Nevertheless it is true, as has been stated in oneof the notes appended to the draft of the Code, thatno law " has any claim to our attention except thatit may derive from its own internal excellence." Howthe basic groundwork of English law has remainedunaffected in spite of the changes worked into it byway of improvement, modification and simplificationhas been clearly illustrated by Sir George Rankin." The notes upon each chapter do firmly impressupon the reader that, greater even than the modificationof English rules which were directed to meetspecialities of Indian conditions, were those whichare due to an opinion that the various rules of lawin force in England were capable of improvement andsimplification. Right reason and not local colouraccounts for most of the departures. It is impossibleto simplify without amending; and if on each topicone set oneself to note all the variations, one mighteasily end by losing sight of the groundwork thathad been left untouched. Thus theft (section 378)differs from larceny in England in a number ofrespects, e.g., intention to deprive the owner of hisproperty is not a necessary element. But who wouldfail to recognise the English legal notion behind theEnglish word, though ' asportation ' is not mentioned,when he reads ' whoever intending to take dishonestlyany movable property . . . moves that property inorder to such taking.' Again, in the offence ofdefamation (section 499) no difference is made betweenspoken and written words: in Macaulay's draft it was