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

60 The Common Law in Indiarecognised the right to a fishery in a tidal and navigableriver in Bengal. 83 As instances of other Indiancommon law rights may be mentioned the right ofburial and with it the right to perform all customaryrites, the right to worship in a mosque or temple andthe right to take out religious processions. 8 * TheIndian courts have also recognised as a common lawright a right to have access to courts of law if aperson can show a cause of action. 85VII.CONCLUSIONWe have examined the factors which led to theapplication and growth of the English law in India.It was almost directly introduced in the PresidencyTowns of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay. In thegreater part of the country it obtained its sway inthe guise of the principles of " equity, justice andgood conscience." Then followed the regulationsmade in the Provinces from time to time, and themagnificent structure of the Indian Codes erected inthe latter half of the nineteenth century. The Codesembodied in the main the principles of English lawsimplified and modified to suit Indian conditions.Some of the Indian statutes made express provisionfor the application in India of principles and rulesenforced by the English courts for the time being. 86A prolific source of the incorporation of English83 Sirnath v. Dinabandu (1914) 41 I.A. 221, 245.s* Ramrao v. Rustum Khan, I.L.B. (1901) 26 Bom. 198; MdWashi v. Bachhan Sahib, A.I.E. [1955] All. 68; Manzur v.Muhammad Zaman (1924) 52 I.A. 61.85 Jagannatha v. Kathaperumal, A.I.E. [1927] Mad. 1035.86 Indian Divorce Act, 1869, s. 7.