Static Quiz – 02 April, 2022

Statement 1: The Regulating Act of 1773 created the office with the title of Governor-General
of the Presidency of Fort William, or Governor-General of Bengal to be appointed by the Court
of Directors of the East India Company (EIC).
• Statement 2: It designated the Governor of Bengal as the ‘Governor-General of Bengal’ and
created an Executive Council of four members to assist him. The first such Governor-General
was Lord Warren Hastings. Statement 3: It was established at Calcutta (not Bombay) in 1774.

Statement 1: It was actually the opposite. The act significantly reduced the powers of the
Supreme Court at Calcutta. The actions of the servants of the Company in their official
capacity were exempted from the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. It also separated the
Governor-General in Council and revenue matters from the Court’s jurisdiction.
• Statement 2: The Act recognised the appellate jurisdiction of the Governor-General in Council.
It empowered the Governor-General and Council to convene as a Court of Record to hear
appeals from the Provincial Courts on civil cases. It meant that appeal could be taken from the
provincial courts to the Governor-General and Council and that was to be the final court of
appeal.
• Statement 3: The Act asserted that Mohammedan cases should be determined by
Mohammedan law and Hindu law applied in Hindu cases. So, the number 3 is clearly-wrong.

It was the Pitt’s India Act of 1784, but it was passed by the British Parliament, not in the
Central Legislative Assembly (CLA) of colonial India. Hence, D is incorrect.

Statement 1: It also empowered him to exercise effective control over the Presidencies.
Through this Act, the British introduced the concept of a civil law enacted by a secular human
agency, i.e., the government and applied universally in place of the personal rule of the past
rulers. In 1786, the Presidencies were divided into districts, and collectors were appointed.
• Statement 2: The most important development that came as a consequence was the deprival
of the monopoly of trade and commerce of the British East India Company except tea and
throwing open the trade of India to all the British citizens.

This was enacted by the British Parliament. The said Act vested for the first time legislative
power in a single authority, namely the Governor-General of Council. By virtue of this
authority and the authority vested under him under the Indian Councils Act 1861 the
Governor General in Council enacted laws for the country from 1834 to 1920. After the
commencement of the Government of India Act 1919 the legislative power was exercised by
the Indian Legislature constituted there under. This shows the early importance of the
Ministry of Law and Justice in shaping India’s legal regime.

Learning Law Reform in the ancient period was ad hoc and not institutionalised. However,
since the third decade of the nineteenth century, Law Commissions were constituted by the
Government from time to time. The first law commission was established in 1834 under the
Charter Act of 1833. Thereafter, the second, third and fourth Law Commissions constituted in
1853, 1861 and 1879, respectively helped adapt English Laws to Indian conditions. The Indian
Code of Civil Procedure, the Indian Contract Act, the Indian Evidence Act and the Transfer of
Property Act etc. are products of the labour of the first four Law Commissions.
• The First Law Commission of Independent India was formed in 1955 with the then
AttorneyGeneral of India, Mr. M. C Setalvad, as its Chairman.

Features of the 1853 Act
• The legislative and the executive functions of the Governor-General’s council were separated
for the first time. The addition of six new members called legislative councillors was provided
to the council. We can also say that, a separate Governor-General’s legislative council which
came to be known as the Indian (central) legislative council was established which worked as
a Mini-Parliament adopting the same procedures as the British Parliament requiring special
machinery and special process as this legislation was treated as the government’s first special
function.
• An open competition system was introduced for the selection and the recruitment of civil
servants. This covenanted civil service opened the opportunities to the Indians also. The
Charter Act of 1833 was attempted to be implemented before the Macaulay Committee
which was the committee on the Indian Civil Service appointed in 1854. The Act was an
attempt to introduce a system of open competition for selection of civil servants to state that
the Indians should not be restricted from holding any place, office and employment under the
Company. But the provision was negated after the opposition from the Court of Directors.
• It helped in extending the company’s rule and permitting it to retain the possession of the
Indian Territories on without specifying any duration of time period unlike Charter’s Act,
which clearly indicated that the Company’s rule could be terminated at any time the
Parliament wishes. for the British Crown legal
• The local representation in the Indian or Central Legislative Council was introduccd for the
first time, Also the four members out of the six new legislative members from the new
Governor-General’s council were appointed by the local or provincial governments or Madras,
Bombay, Bengal and Agra.

This significant Act was enacted in the wake of the Revolt of 1857-also known as the First War
of Independence or the ‘sepoy mutiny’. The act known as the Act for the Good Government of
India, abolished the East India Company, and transferred the powers of government,
territories and revenues to the British Crown.

Statement 1 The Indian Councils Act 1861 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
that transformed the Viceroy of India’s executive council into a on the portfolio system. sıx
‘ordinary members’, who each took charge of a separate department in Calcutta’s
government: home, revenue, military, law, finance and (after 1874) public works.
• Statement 2: Lord canning’s tenure is responsible for this introduction. Statement 3: The
Viceroy was allowed to issue ordinances lasting six months if the Legislative Council is not in
session in an emergency. The act thus empowered the Viceroy to make rules and orders for
the more convenient trans- action of business in the council. It also gave a recognition to the
‘portfolio’ system, introduced by Lord Canning in 1859. Statement 4: The Act of 1861 was
repealed by the Government of India Act 1915.

In 1862, Lord Canning, the then viceroy, nominated three Indians to his legislative council of
Benaras, the Maharaja of Patiala and Sir Dinkar Rao. – the Raja