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Theory paper

History of Courts, Legislature and Legal Profession

Examined on Constitution of India, Charters and the Regulating and Charter Acts, 1600 to 1858, Government of India Acts 1919 and 1935; Indian Independence Act 1947, Advocates Act 1961. Arts. 13, 32, 50, 121, 124, 125, 129 to 146, 211, 214, 215, 226, 227, 233 and 235 — the court system as it now stands, the rule of law, judicial independence and the separation of powers. Art. 124(2) must be read with the 2015 decision striking down the NJAC amendment, which is why the collegium survives.

This page is the map of the paper: every syllabus unit, the leading cases with full summaries, and the exam questions the paper actually sets.

Units

  1. Unit 1 · Administration of Justice 1600–1780, the Regulating Act 1773 and the Settlement Act 1781 — Module I — the Royal Charter of 1600 and the King’s Commission of 1601; the Mayor’s Courts and the Charter of 1726; the changes made by the Charter of 1753; Warren Hastings’s judicial plans of 1772 and 1774 and the separation of 1780; the Regulating Act 1773, the Supreme Court at Calcutta under the Charter of 1774 and its working; Kamaluddin’s Case, the Patna Case, Cossijurah’s Case, the trial of Raja Nandakumar and Saroop Chand’s Case; the Act of Settlement 1781; Impey’s reforms and the judicial reforms of Lord Cornwallis
  2. Unit 2 · The Dual Judicial System and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council — Module II — the conflicts arising out of the dual judicial system; the Indian High Courts Act 1861 and the fusion of the Supreme Courts with the Sadar Adalats; the High Courts after 1861; the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the routes and thresholds of appeal from the Mayor’s Courts, the Supreme Courts, the Recorder’s Courts, the Sadar Diwani Adalats, the High Courts and the Federal Court; the abolition of Privy Council appeals in 1949; and the Federal Court under the Government of India Act 1935
  3. Unit 3 · Courts under the Constitution; Rule of Law, Independence of the Judiciary and Separation of Powers — Module III — the integrated judiciary; the Supreme Court, its constitution, qualifications, tenure and its original, appellate, special leave, writ and advisory jurisdictions; the High Courts, Arts. 214, 215, 226 and 227; the subordinate courts, Arts. 233 and 235; the rule of law before and after independence; the seven devices securing judicial independence; and separation of powers under Art. 50
  4. Unit 4 · History of the Legislature and of the Legal Profession — Module IV — the Charter of 1600, the Charter Act 1833 and its three provisions, the Indian Councils Acts and the Minto-Morley reforms of 1909, the Government of India Acts 1919 and 1935, and the Indian Independence Act 1947; and the legal profession from the Charter of 1726 through the Regulating Act 1773, the Legal Practitioners Acts of 1846 and 1879, the High Courts Act 1861, the Chamier Committee and the Indian Bar Councils Act 1926, the All India Bar Committee 1951 and the Advocates Act 1961

Leading cases in this paper

Exam questions

Where it sits

Statutes