DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68024#0398
390
reason, that since the abolition of the offices of Mufti and Kazi-ul-Kuzzat—officers specially authorised to in-
terpret and expound the Muhammadan law to European Judges,—the Muhammadan law has practically ceased
to be administered. Even where it is attempted to be applied or enforced, the attempt is always uncertain in
its result. The major portion of the Muhammadan law regulating the domestic relations is not recognised by
the Courts of Justice in India.
The remedy suggested is the appointment in the mofussil of Muhammadan Judges quali-
fied to expound the Muhammadan law, to sit as Assessor Judges in the trial of Muhammadan
cases. The appointment of a Muhammadan Judge in each of the High and Chief Courts is
also recommended.
With regard to this matter, the Government of India, after a careful consideration of the
local reports, including the opinions of the High Courts, has no hesitation in coming to the
conclusion that the Mussalman community have no substantial grievance. In those provinces
in which any considerable number of cases of Muhammadan law come before the Courts, the
Bar is largely composed of members of that community, so that Muhammadan exponents of
the law are always to be found. The appointment of law officer to the Courts was abolished
by Act XI of 1864 after full deliberation, on the ground that the office had come to be one
of no practical utility. However necessary it may have been in the early days of British rule
to employ Muhammadan experts to interpret Muhammadan law, especially when the criminal
courts for the most part had to administer that law, such necessity has now ceased to exist;
the Penal Code has been introduced, the general study of law has progressed, the standard for
judicial employment has been raised, and text-books in English, dealing fully and ably with
Muhammadan law, have become common. In the opinion, therefore, of the Government of
India, the evidence forthcoming lends no support to the statements of the memorialists, that
justice has miscarried from the want of acquaintance of the Judges with Muhammadan law.
Nor does the Government see any reason to revive the system which would place members of
the Mussalman community in the position of Assessor Judges to the civil courts of the country.
It is also impossible to undertake that a Muhammadan Judge shall always sit on the bench
of each of the High and Chief Courts; but the Governor General in Council would certainly
admit the claims of any Muhammadan gentleman who might appear to be in other respects
the best suited for such an appointment. One gentleman of the Muhammadan community
recently filled the post of Officiating Judge of the bench of the High Court of the North-
Western Provinces.
24. The last point in the memorial to which it is necessary to refer is the abolition of Urdu
as the Court language of Behar. This was a measure carried out after much consideration by
the Local Government. The Lieutenant-Governor now remarks regarding it —
o o
To the objections against the introduction of Hindi as the official language of Behar, the Lieutenant-
Governor considers that a sufficient answer is furnished by the last Administration Report of the Commissioner
of the Patna Division. It is stated in that report that the change in question has been effected without diffi-
culty and with great advantage to the public in general. A new class of amla and legal practitioners acquainted
with Hindi is springing up, while the change has been introduced with such consideration for the claims of
existing incumbents of offices that the individual hardship caused by it has been inappreciable. This statement
will be intelligible when it is understood that even at the present day all subordinate officials and law-agents
have some knowledge of Hindi. All speak it, and nearly all write it, though possibly not with the same facility
as Urdu. There is reason to believe that this outcry against the use of Hindi in Behar is rather a matter of
factitious sentiment than of practical inconvenience. It is far louder among the Muhammadans of Calcutta
who are not affected by the change than among the supposed sufferers. The change is the logical sequence
of that exclusively Hindi teaching which has prevailed for nearly ten years with such marked success in all the
primary patshalas and vernacular schools of Behar, in the very institutions, that is to say, from which the
subordinate official classes, in whose behalf alone this outcry is raised, are fed. To give effect to the wishes of
the National Muhammadan Association, therefore, on this point, it would be necessary to reverse the existing
and approved policy of popular education in these provinces—a course which the memorialists themselves would
hardly advocate.
25. The Governor General in Council has felt it to be his duty in the preceding para-
graphs to controvert various misconceptions which find place in the representations that have
been laid before Government; but he will, as already stated, always take a lively interest in
the advancement and well-being of the Muhammadan community, and he concurs in the re-
marks which not unfrequently occur in the local reports, that the very fact that a memorial
like that under notice has been presented with the concurrence and approval of so many
leading gentlemen in Bengal and elsewhere, indicates that the Muhammadans have themselves
come to appreciate fully the necessity of moving with the times. They have now among
them not a few highly educated and public spirited men who are keenly interested in the
improvement and advancement of their co-religionists. The Local Governments are every-
where anxious to do all that they equitably can do to assist in this movement; and His Excel-
lency in Council has little doubt that, within the next ten years, much greater progress will
be made than has hitherto been recorded. It is the earnest desire of the Supreme Government
reason, that since the abolition of the offices of Mufti and Kazi-ul-Kuzzat—officers specially authorised to in-
terpret and expound the Muhammadan law to European Judges,—the Muhammadan law has practically ceased
to be administered. Even where it is attempted to be applied or enforced, the attempt is always uncertain in
its result. The major portion of the Muhammadan law regulating the domestic relations is not recognised by
the Courts of Justice in India.
The remedy suggested is the appointment in the mofussil of Muhammadan Judges quali-
fied to expound the Muhammadan law, to sit as Assessor Judges in the trial of Muhammadan
cases. The appointment of a Muhammadan Judge in each of the High and Chief Courts is
also recommended.
With regard to this matter, the Government of India, after a careful consideration of the
local reports, including the opinions of the High Courts, has no hesitation in coming to the
conclusion that the Mussalman community have no substantial grievance. In those provinces
in which any considerable number of cases of Muhammadan law come before the Courts, the
Bar is largely composed of members of that community, so that Muhammadan exponents of
the law are always to be found. The appointment of law officer to the Courts was abolished
by Act XI of 1864 after full deliberation, on the ground that the office had come to be one
of no practical utility. However necessary it may have been in the early days of British rule
to employ Muhammadan experts to interpret Muhammadan law, especially when the criminal
courts for the most part had to administer that law, such necessity has now ceased to exist;
the Penal Code has been introduced, the general study of law has progressed, the standard for
judicial employment has been raised, and text-books in English, dealing fully and ably with
Muhammadan law, have become common. In the opinion, therefore, of the Government of
India, the evidence forthcoming lends no support to the statements of the memorialists, that
justice has miscarried from the want of acquaintance of the Judges with Muhammadan law.
Nor does the Government see any reason to revive the system which would place members of
the Mussalman community in the position of Assessor Judges to the civil courts of the country.
It is also impossible to undertake that a Muhammadan Judge shall always sit on the bench
of each of the High and Chief Courts; but the Governor General in Council would certainly
admit the claims of any Muhammadan gentleman who might appear to be in other respects
the best suited for such an appointment. One gentleman of the Muhammadan community
recently filled the post of Officiating Judge of the bench of the High Court of the North-
Western Provinces.
24. The last point in the memorial to which it is necessary to refer is the abolition of Urdu
as the Court language of Behar. This was a measure carried out after much consideration by
the Local Government. The Lieutenant-Governor now remarks regarding it —
o o
To the objections against the introduction of Hindi as the official language of Behar, the Lieutenant-
Governor considers that a sufficient answer is furnished by the last Administration Report of the Commissioner
of the Patna Division. It is stated in that report that the change in question has been effected without diffi-
culty and with great advantage to the public in general. A new class of amla and legal practitioners acquainted
with Hindi is springing up, while the change has been introduced with such consideration for the claims of
existing incumbents of offices that the individual hardship caused by it has been inappreciable. This statement
will be intelligible when it is understood that even at the present day all subordinate officials and law-agents
have some knowledge of Hindi. All speak it, and nearly all write it, though possibly not with the same facility
as Urdu. There is reason to believe that this outcry against the use of Hindi in Behar is rather a matter of
factitious sentiment than of practical inconvenience. It is far louder among the Muhammadans of Calcutta
who are not affected by the change than among the supposed sufferers. The change is the logical sequence
of that exclusively Hindi teaching which has prevailed for nearly ten years with such marked success in all the
primary patshalas and vernacular schools of Behar, in the very institutions, that is to say, from which the
subordinate official classes, in whose behalf alone this outcry is raised, are fed. To give effect to the wishes of
the National Muhammadan Association, therefore, on this point, it would be necessary to reverse the existing
and approved policy of popular education in these provinces—a course which the memorialists themselves would
hardly advocate.
25. The Governor General in Council has felt it to be his duty in the preceding para-
graphs to controvert various misconceptions which find place in the representations that have
been laid before Government; but he will, as already stated, always take a lively interest in
the advancement and well-being of the Muhammadan community, and he concurs in the re-
marks which not unfrequently occur in the local reports, that the very fact that a memorial
like that under notice has been presented with the concurrence and approval of so many
leading gentlemen in Bengal and elsewhere, indicates that the Muhammadans have themselves
come to appreciate fully the necessity of moving with the times. They have now among
them not a few highly educated and public spirited men who are keenly interested in the
improvement and advancement of their co-religionists. The Local Governments are every-
where anxious to do all that they equitably can do to assist in this movement; and His Excel-
lency in Council has little doubt that, within the next ten years, much greater progress will
be made than has hitherto been recorded. It is the earnest desire of the Supreme Government