ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.
Act XXIV of 1839 empowered the Government of Madras to prescribe such rules as they might deem proper for the guidance of the Agent and his subordinates in judicial and other matters ; for the determination of the extent to which his decision in civil suits should be final or subject to appeal to the High Court; and for the regulation of the manner in which the same tribunal should deal with his judgments in criminal cases. The rules accordingly framed originally left, civil cases to be tried by panchayats, but they have since been frequently revised, and as they stand at present they direct that civil suits shall be heard by the revenue officers, but lay down a course of procedure simpler than that prescribed by the Civil Procedure Code, which is not in force in the Agency. They empower the district munsifs (who are the deputy tahsildars) to try suits up to Rs. 500 in value, the Divisional Officers (who have the civil powers of sub-judges) those between Rs. 500 and Rs. 5,000, and the Agent those above the latter sum in value. Criminal justice is administered as elsewhere, both the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code being in force, except that there is no trial by jury. The deputy tahsildars are sub-magistrates, the Divisional Officers have first-class powers, and the Agent is the Sessions Judge and is aided by the senior Civilian Divisional Officer, who is made an Additional Sessions Judge.
The wide terms of Act. XXIV of 1839 (which has both retrospective and prospective effect) coupled with the uncertainties of the two subsequent enactments of 1874 called the Laws Local Extent Act and the Scheduled Districts Act, led to much doubt as to what laws were actually in force in the Agency, and in 1898, after prolonged correspondence with the Government of India, was published the first of a series of notifications under the Scheduled Districts Act which did much to set the matter at rest. The Appendix to this chapter shows the Acts which have now been so notified to be in force there (or, there being no doubt in the matter, have by executive order been declared to be so in force), but the notifications are not decisive of the question whether an enactment not included in them is or is not in force.
Outside the Agency, the civil tribunals are of the usual four grades, namely, the courts of village and district munsifs and of the recently -appointed sub-judge, and the District Court. Their powers and jurisdiction are the same as elsewhere. Statistics regarding the work done by them will be found in the separate Appendix to this volume.
197
