Legislative Acts of the Governor General of India in Council, 1834-1851
THE LEGISLATIVE ACTS
OF THE
GOVERNOR GENERAL OF INDIA
IN COUNCIL,
FROM 1834 TO THE END OF 1867;
WITH
AN ANALYTICAL ABSTRACT PREFIXED TO EACH ACT; TABLE OF CONTENTS AND INDEX TO EACH VOLUME; THE LETTERS PATENT OF THE HIGH COURTS, AND ACTS OF PARLIAMENT AUTHORIZING THEM.
(TO BE CONTINUED ANNUALLY.)
VOL. I.
1834—1851.
By WILLIAM THEOBALD, ESQ.,
Barisster-at-Law; and of the High Court, Calcutta.
CALCUTTA:
MESSRS. THACKER, SPINK & CO.,
PUBLISHERS TO THE UNIVERSITY
And may be had of all other Booksellers
1868
LONDON:
PRINTED BY JOHN RING AND COMPANY, LIMITED
QUEEN STREET, CHEAPSIDE, E.C.
PREFACE.
The present is a collection of the Acts of the Legislative Council of India, from 1834 to the end of 1867. Repealed Acts and parts of Acts are omitted, but the Abstracts are retained, a plan which, I believe, has given satisfaction in former editions. I have admitted exceptions to the former part of this general rule, by the reprint of such repealed Acts and parts of Acts as concern titles to property, or in other respects have a permanent value for reference; and a few others of merely historical value may have been retained in the present, but will not in any subsequent volume. By this plan I have anticipated, to a considerable extent, the objects of a Bill now in course of being passed by the Legislative Council, for the repeal of some 180 Acts, which have become inoperative by change of circumstances, or have expired. The greater part of them have been suppressed in this Edition, and thereby the Bill referred to is anticipated.
The title which I have given to the present Collection is synonymous with "Acts of the Legislative Council of India." The Council came into existence in 1834 (the date at which this Collection begins), under 3 and 4 W. 4, c. 85, as a distinct body separate from that of the Executive Government of India; and the legislative powers of the Presidency Governments, through the exercise of which each Presidency had previously been supplied with Regulations (so called and not Acts), at the same time ceased.
In 1853, when the 3 and 4 W. 4, c. 85, was about to expire, the constitution of the Legislative Council was recast by the 16 and 17 V., c. 95, and great changes were made in it. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court became ex-officio a Member of it. One other Judge of the Supreme Court was to be added to it by appointment of the Governor General; and each Presidency became (so to say) represented in it. It is noteworthy that it was during this period that the Indian Penal Code (the most logically perfect piece of Penal Legislation extant) was passed, the Chief Justice Sir Barnes Peacock being Vice-President of, and presiding at the Council. In 1861 the Legislative Constitution underwent another great transformation, under "The Indian Council's Act, 1861" (24 and 25 V., c. 67). The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court ceased to be ex-officio a Member of the Council, and Representative Members (so to call them), not fewer than six, and not more than twelve, of whom half were to be non-official persons, were to be appointed by the Governor General. At the same time Legislative Councils were to be established for the different Presidencies, and have been in existence ever since.
With respect to this Edition, the reader will find Notes to Acts and Sections, indicating subsequent changes and repeals; and I believe the Index will be found more than usually full.W. THEOBALD.
London, December 24, 1867.