Modern Hyderabad (Deccan)/Chapter 10
CHAPTER X.
The Administration of Justice.
The High Court of the Dominions has since the flood of 1908 been in a building at Saifabad, a suburb of the capital, and the small rooms and narrow passages of this place call loudly for a larger and more imposing-looking building. Plans for a suitable edifice have been prepared, and money is, I believe, available, but so far it has not been found possible to obtain a suitable site.
The present High Court consists of the Chief Justice, five Puisne Judges, and one Mufti, whose decision, according to Mahomedan law, is sent to H. H. the Nizam together with the sentence of the High Court, for all sentences of death and life-long imprisonment.
The High Court has three Benches — the Original Bench, the Divisional Bench and the Full Bench. It maintains a general supervision over all the Courts in the State, and the Chief Justice, or any Judge of the High Court whom he may appoint, goes on circuit from time to time to inspect the various courts in the city and the districts. The High Court issues rules and regulations for the guidance of all the courts, in consonance with the law, alters laws and suggests to the government the introduction of new laws and the amendment of old ones.
There is, also, a Judicial Committee, composed of Judges, which resembles to some extent the Privy Council in England.
In the capital are the Darul Kaza Court, which exercises jurisdiction in original suits between Mahomedans relating to betrothal, marriage, divorce, guardianship, dowry, inheritance, gifts and funeral expenses, and the City Civil and the City Criminal Courts. And in the suburbs of the city are the Atraf-i-balda Court and the Courts of the British Resident.
In each of the four divisions of the State is a Divisional Judge, and the talukdars and tahsildars in the districts have the powers of first, second and third grade magistrates. Even the police patel, or village policeman, has power over low-class people, being able to lock up a prisoner for a few hours or inflict a fine of one or two rupees. The talukdars have, in busy places, Judicial Assistants, and from their courts complicated cases are sent to the Divisional Courts at head-quarters.
The Paigah nobles and the jagirdars have their own courts and prisons, and they possess magisterial powers of various grades which add very much to their importance.
Prisoners from the Atraf-i-balda (crown land) are sent to the Central Jail in Hyderabad. The First Talukdar of the Atraf-i-balda district is a Nazim-i-Diwani, or Civil Judge ; and he has a Judicial Assistant, who presides over the District Civil Court. The second and third tahsildars exercise powers of the third class. The first talukdar is the head of the Atraf-i-balda district police, and he has a superintendent as his executive deputy.
The City Courts are small and very crowded, and the visitor to Hyderabad who desires to witness picturesque and varied scenes should visit the City Criminal Court during the morning hours. Every variety of costume may be seen there and a babel of tongues will be heard, while lawyers and litigants jostle one another on the steep steps, policemen and prisoners arrive and depart, and a varied and motley crowd of onlookers passes up and down. Many lawyers will be noticed, for the legal profession is popular in Hyderabad, and the supply of pleaders is said to exceed the demand. The Hyderabad turban is worn by the lawyers, but no wig or gown.
Law classes and examinations in Urdu, Persian, and Arabic are held in the city, and law students are trained there in civil and criminal law, as it is practised in the various courts in H. H. the Nizam's Dominions, and sanads are granted to successful students, which enable them to become pleaders in Hyderabad. These sanads must be renewed yearly, unless a considerable sum of money is paid for a perpetual sanad, and this arrangement is said to keep a control over the lawyers and to prove more effective than the fear of being "struck off the rolls."
The administration report for 1320-1321 Fasli (1910-1912 a.d.), gives some interesting information concerning policemen and prisons; but it must be remembered that the Paigah estates and the jagirs are not included in these government reports.
The city police are under a kotwal, and consist of 440 officers and 3,072 men. They are smart-looking especially the mounted members of the Force, and on langar day 1913 they were seen to great advantage. The way in which they handled the vast crowds on that occasion was wonderful to witness. But if the handling of masses of people in the streets were equally rough in British India, then we should see in the native newspapers many complaints. The absence of women no doubt accounted for much of the vigorous treatment, and H. H. the Nizam's subjects seemed rather to enjoy being hammered and driven about. The order maintained in the city now, both by day and night, makes it difficult to realize that not so very many years ago it was not considered safe for Europeans to venture there without an escort. And it must not be forgotten that there is no Arms Act in Hyderabad, and that almost every man there carries a weapon of some sort.
The district police are under an Inspector-General, an English gentleman who has devoted the best years of his life to the Hyderabad State and has done much for the Nizam's subjects. The force consists of 1,187 officers and 8,895 men, and is distributed all over the State. During 1320- 1321 Fasli (1910-1912 A.D.), 168 murders were investigated by the district police, 328 robberies, 1409 cases of house trespass or house-breaking, 959 cases of cattle theft and 2,296 cases of ordinary theft.
There are under the care of the Inspector-General 5 Central and 12 District Jails, also a reformatory for boys, and a criminal leper asylum. And a settlement for the tribes that have been declared criminal has lately been opened on a small scale in the Warangal division. In 1320-1321 Fasli (1910-1912 a.d.) the daily average roll of convicts in all the jails was 2,069, and only 3-8 per cent, of the total number of persons admitted (5,524) were literate. Of the prisoners admitted Hindus formed 49.1 per cent, and 19.1 per cent, were Mahomedans. During the two years under consideration, 16 Christians were admitted; and at the Gulbarga Jail I was told that only one Christian had ever been there and that he, during his term of imprisonment, had become a Mahomedan.
There has been a very marked decrease in the number of convicts admitted into the jails of recent years, and this is attributed to the fact that the prisoners are now taught various trades during their incarceration, and consequently return home with a means of earning an honest living. They learn to make tents, carpets, bricks, and other things, and they work in large gardens, thus supplying the jails with vegetables and lessening the expenses of these places. In fact, I am sure that nowhere in India are jails conducted on better principles than in Hyderabad State, and when we consider how illiterate the prisoners are, and the classes from which they come, we cannot fail to see that the results now arrived at are excellent.
During 1320-1321 Fasli (1910-1912 A.D.) forty-three men were sentenced to life-long imprisonment and six were beheaded.
Capital punishment is not inflicted on women. And in civil cases women of the higher classes do not appear in court, but are represented there by a pleader. In the Gulbarga Jail I saw six women who had committed terrible murders, and were suffering life-long imprisonment. The conditions of these female convicts could no doubt have been made better; but how can an Elizabeth Fry be found in a country where the ladies are strictly purdah? Only one hundred years ago all the female prisoners in Newgate (London) — 300 women and children — were crowded into two wards and two cells, containing a superficial area of about 190 yards, and one old man and his son performed the duties of warders. Without bedding, the women slept on the floor, the boards of which were raised to supply a sort of pillow. In these rooms they lived, cooked, and washed, and history says that the Governor of Newgate entered this portion of the jail with reluctance.
The kitchen arrangements of the jails in Hyderabad State are particularly satisfactory, and the prisoners are well-fed, well-housed, and well-cared-for. Probably of all the government institutions in H. H. the Nizam's Dominions none are so thoroughly satisfactory as the prisons.