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

The Rise of the Common Law 21preference to their own—they were become accustomed tothem. The town was part of the dominion of the Crown byunequivocal right—originally by cession, founded on compact,afterwards by capture and conquest. Their submission wasvoluntary and if they disliked the laws, they had only tocross a ditch, and w'ere no longer subject to them. The stateof an inhabitant in the provinces at large, was that of a maninhabiting his own country, subject to its own laws. The stateof an Hindoo, a native of the provinces, inhabiting Calcutta,which in effect was an English town to all intents and purposes,did not differ from that of any other foreigner from whatsoevercountry he might have migrated; he partook of the protectionof the laws, and in return owed them obedience." 28Apart from the conflicting systems of law the widejurisdiction of the Supreme Court and the absence ofany delimitation of that jurisdiction in reference tothe Company's courts in the mofussil created seriousconflicts between the Company's government and thenewly established court. This led to the enactmentof the Act of Settlement of 1781 (21 Geo, 3, c. 17).The effect of this statute was to abridge the powersand jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. By thatstatute and by a later statute of 1797 (37 Geo. 8,c. 142) the Supreme Court in Calcutta and therecorders' courts which were then functioning inMadras and Bombay were empowered to determineall actions and suits against the inhabitants of thesaid towns, provided that their succession and inheritanceto lands, rents and goods, and all matters ofcontract and dealing between party and party, shouldbe determined in the case of Mahomedans by thelaws and usages of Mahomedans and in the case ofssQuoted by E. C. Ormond, The Rules of the High Court ofJudicature at Fort William, Bengal (on the Original Side)(4th ed., 1941), p. 87.