India Under British Rule from the Foundation of the East India Company

by James Talboys Wheeler

District officers.

Under the non-Regulation system the duties of magistrate, collector, and civil and sessions judge were discharged by a single officer, who was known as the deputy-commissioner. The deputy-commissioner was thus not only the head of the civil administration of his district, but the magistrate and judge. Below him were certain grades of assistant commissioners, whose duties were of a similarly comprehensive character. Half of these grades were taken from the ranks of the Indian civil service, and the other half from British officers in the Indian army. Below them were grades of uncovenanted officers, European and Asiatic, known as extra assistant commissioners, who corresponded more or less with the class of deputy-collectors created by Lord William Bentinck.

Commissioners.

The commissioners of divisions controlled the administration of the districts under their charge after the manner of commissioners in Bengal, Bombay, and the North-West Provinces. They also heard appeals from the courts of deputy-commissioners. Another officer, known as the "financial commissioner," controlled the expenditure of the entire province, in subordination to the chief commissioner.

Judicial commissioner: Punjab code.

There was no Supreme Court, and no Sudder Court, in the Punjab. In those patriarchal days a single officer, known as the "judicial commissioner," controlled all the law courts in the province, and was the last court of appeal. Meanwhile a code of laws was drawn up, under the directions of the chief commissioner, by his secretary, Mr. (now Sir Richard) Temple. Since then Sir Richard Temple has filled high positions in India, which were only second in importance to those occupied by his illustrious master.

Land settlement: village system.

The land settlement in the Punjab was carried out on the same lines as that in the North-West Provinces. Proprietary rights of village communities, joint or otherwise, were recognised as far as possible. The village system was perhaps as perfect in the Punjab as in any other part of India, but for years the rights of village proprietors had been ignored or stamped out under Sikh rule. The revenue collectors of Runjeet Singh cared nothing for proprietary right, nor indeed for any law or usage which debarred them from exacting as much revenue as possible from the cultivators of the land.

North-West Provinces.

Meanwhile the land settlement of the North-West Provinces, which had been modified by Lord William Bentinck, was brought to a close under the supervision of Mr. Thomason, the Lieutenant-Governor. It was based on the principle of recognising, defining, and recording all existing rights of proprietors of every kind and sort, from those of hereditary chiefs and landlords, down to village proprietors, joint or otherwise. The settlement included a full record of the rights of all proprietors in every village. Every field was measured and mapped; every house was entered on a list. All shares in the land, and all joint and separate liabilities for revenue, were registered. The customs of the village were recorded, and formed a manual of village law. Finally, details of all lawsuits under the settlement officers were preserved, and formed a history of the village settlement. This system was carried out in the Punjab and other new provinces of British India. In Bengal, however, it is stopped by the zemindari system; whilst in Madras village rights are equal under the ryotwari system.