Legal Profession in India: Post 18571

During the late 18 and early 19 centuries, the Indian cities, much like British cities of the time,
were poorly administered and policed. Crimes were widespread and corruption was rampant
especially in the police. Lord Cornwallis realized that implementation of judicial reforms would
not be complete without police reforms. Much of the criminal justice system in Bengal remained
in the hands of the Nawab, the nominal local ruler of the company's territory. Warren Hastings
had attempted several times to make changes in policing and the administration of justice, but
with limited success. William Jones, an expert on languages and legal system in Ancient India,
translated the existing Hindu and Muslim penal codes into English. The limited objective was
that the principles of the ancient texts could be evaluated and applied by English-speaking
judges. In 1787, Lord Cornwallis gave limited criminal judicial powers to the company's revenue
collectors, who had already served as civil magistrates. Most importantly, the collector was
divested of judicial and magisterial powers and entrusted with the duty of administration of
revenue. In 1790 the company took over the administration of justice from the Nawab, and
Cornwallis introduced a system of circuit courts with a superior court that met in Calcutta and
had the power of review over circuit court decisions. However, most of the judges were non-
native. Lord Cornwallis had initiated efforts to harmonize different codes existing at that time.
By the time of his departure in 1793, the harmonized code, known in India as the Cornwallis
Code, was substantially complete.

Following the First War of Independence in 1857, the control of East India Company territories
in India passed to the British Crown. The Government of India Act 1858 authorized the British
Crown to take over the administration of all territories from the East India Company. The Act
also vested the power to appoint the Governor-General in the British Crown.In 1861 the Indian
High Courts Act and the Indian Councils Act were passed by the British Parliament, which
empowered Her Majesty to issue Letters Patent establishing High Courts in three Presidency
towns. The former provided for the abolition of the Supreme Courts of Judicature and the Sadar
Diwani Adalats and the constitution of the High Courts of Judicature in their place in the three
Presidency towns. The Chartered High Courts remained as the highest courts in India till the
establishment of the Federal Court of India under the Government of India Act of 1935. By

1
Ashmita Singh. Roll no. 318, Semeester X’ B.
virtue of section 16 (a), power was reserved to Her Majesty to constitute similar High Courts in
other territories, which were not within the local jurisdiction of any of the three proposed High
Courts of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. The Indian Councils Act empowered the Governor-
General to create local legislatures in various provinces though the exercise of this power.2

The Bengal Regulation VII of 1793 which created for the first time a regular legal profession for
the company’s courts, which allowed the appointment of Vakils or native pleaders in the courts
of civil judicature in the provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. In 1861 three High Courts were
established at Calcutta, Madras and Bombay. At this time three bodies of practitioners viz,
advocates, Attorneys and Vakils were inexistence. Advocates were the barristers of England or
Ireland but the Vakils were Indian Practioners. According to Clause 19 of Letters Patent 1865 of
the High Court of Calcutta empowered the court to approve, admit and enrol such and so many
Advocates, Attorneys and Vakils as the High Court shall deem fit. As already state Supreme
Court not allowed but High Courts were allowed them which increased the prestige of Indian
Lawyers. Legal Practioners Act, 1879, provided for enrolment to only those practioners who had
taken LL.B degree from Indian Universities. Under Section 41, the High Court could dismiss any
advocate or suspend him from practice by giving an opportunity to defend him. Bar Councils
Act, 1926 unified two grades of legal practioners, the Vakils and Pleaders, by merging them in
the class of advocates. It also provided for making rules for giving facilities of legal education
and training.
The pattern of legal education which is in vogue in India was transplanted by the English;
after the establishment of their rule in India.
Formal legal education in India came into existence in1855 when the first professorship of law
was established at the Government Ephistone College in Bombay and Madras and Hindu College
at Calcutta. At that time the primary aim of legal education was to equip law students so that
they could help the lower courts and the High Courts in the administration of justice by enrolling
themselves as Vakils or becoming judicial officers, and thus serve the interests of the
Administration. As majority of the population was rural and illiterate, the need was felt to bridge
the gap between the existing law and the uneducated masses crying for justice, by rendering
importance to formal legal education. Initially a law school had to be a self-financing institution,

2
S. K. Agrawala, Legal Education in India in Problems and Perspectives.
and if possible a money making concern so that it could feed the teaching of other disciplines in
the University. There is no tradition of legal research and academic legal training. In the year,
1857 legal education was introduced as a subject for teaching in three universities in the
presidency towns of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay. Thus, a beginning of the formal legal
education was made in the sub-continent. The language of the British statutes being English, so
any Indian who learnt English could study law and was considered qualified to practice the
profession. At that time law classes were attached with arts colleges. However, if one aspired to
something higher, he could go to England and join the Inns court, provided one could afford it.
The research work, since will primarily focus on the development of legal profession in India ,
post 1857 ,it will comprise of a detailed study of the statutes and enforcements enacted say the
Legal Practitioners Act of 1846 and 1853 as it brought in the idea of barristers and attorneys
practicing in the Company’s courts, and how the indigenous Indian legal practitioners were
rigorously kept out of the three Supreme Courts.3
The work will also focus on as to how as a matter of policy the company tried to discourage the
growth of legal profession because it wanted to limit the number of law suits.

As the British government assumed direct control of the territories of the British East India
Company in 1858. A unified judicial system was established in the three presidencies and all
courts throughout British India were brought under one unified system of control. Chartered
High Courts (under the Indian High Courts Act, 1862) were established in Calcutta, Bombay and
Madras. The High Courts so established became the successors of the Supreme Courts as also of
the Sudder Courts. At least one third of the judges, including the Chief Justice, were to be
barristers of the United Kingdom; another one-third were to be recruited from the judicial branch
of the Indian Civil Service and the remaining places were made available to the members of the
subordinate judiciary and Indian lawyers practicing in the High Courts.

The work will also throw light on as to how ultimately the empowerment (under clause 9 of the
Letters Patent of 1865 and under section 41 of the Legal Practitioners Act, 1879) to “approve,
admit and enrol such and so many Advocates, Vakeels and Attorneys” as they deemed fit and
persons so enrolled could plead and/or act for the suitors “ according to rules as the High Courts
may...by rules and directions determine....” ended the monopoly enjoyed by barristers, gave to

3
Indian Law Institute, Working Paper on Legal Education
Indian lawyers the same privilege, prestige and opportunities as were hitherto enjoyed by British
barristers and thus led to an opening to lawyers but also enhanced the prestige of the profession.