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

4 The Common Law in Indiabut also its traditions, some of the principles underlyingthe English statute law, the equitable principlesdeveloped in England in order to mitigate the rigoursof the common law and even the attitudes andmethods pervading the British system of the administrationof justice. My justification for the use of theexpression in such an extended sense is perhaps thedifficulty in finding a more appropriate expression.II. HISTORICALPeriod ending A.D. 1726The history of present-day Indo-British jurisprudencecommences with the formation of the LondonEast India Company in 1600 in the reign of QueenElizabeth I. The charters of Queen Elizabeth andJames I granted to the Company in the years 1600and 1609 gave the " power to them to make, ordainand constitute such and so many reasonable laws,constitutions, orders and ordinances as to them . . .shall seem necessary ... so always that the saidlaws, orders, constitutions, ordinances, imprisonments,fines and amerciaments be reasonable and not contraryor repugnant to the laws, statutes, customs of thisour realm." 3 The position of the Company's factoriesin India was at that time somewhat anomalous. Theywere, generally speaking, a part of the dominion ofthe Moghul. Yet since the very early days theCompany had obtained the authority of the BritishCrown to administer justice and constitute judicialauthorities in the areas covered by these factories.3 H. Cowell, Tagore Law Lectures, 1872, 12-13.