The Ṣadr Dīwānī ʿAdālat (, ) (English: Sudder Dewanny Adawlut) was the Supreme Court of Revenue in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

established at

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

Warren Hastings Warren Hastings (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818) was a British colonial administrator, who served as the first governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and so the first governor-gener ...

in 1772. It was reformed in 1780 and again in 1793 by the British Parliament. The court's judges were the Governor General and Council Members of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

, assisted by native judges and officers of revenue.

Meaning

The term is in the

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

: *''Sudder'' signifies literally "the breast"; the fore-court of a house; the chief seat of government, contradistinguished from Mofussil, or interior of the country; the presidency. *''

Dewan ''Dewan'' (also known as ''diwan'', sometimes spelled ''devan'' or ''divan'') designated a powerful government official, minister, or ruler. A ''dewan'' was the head of a state institution of the same name (see Divan). Diwans belonged to the el ...

'' is an ancient

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

word which was adopted throughout the Islamic world, meaning a powerful government official, minister or ruler. *''Adawlut'', signifying "justice", "equity", a court of justice. The term Dewanny Adawlut signifies a civil court of justice. Foujdarry Adawlut signifies a criminal court of justice.

History

The court was established to allow Hindus to be governed by

Hindu law Hindu law, as a historical term, refers to the code of laws applied to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs in British India. Hindu law, in modern scholarship, also refers to the legal theory, jurisprudence and philosophical reflections on the na ...

in matters of property, and not as before by

Muslim law Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...

, although they were still subject to Muslim criminal law. In each of the

districts of British India The districts of British India were key administrative units of the British Raj, or Indian Empire, serving as subdivisions of the Provinces of British India, provinces and divisions of British India. These districts, often referred to as ''zila ...

, subordinate courts of revenue with definitive jurisdiction of up to 500 rupees, were established in which the judges were the relevant

District Collector The district magistrate, also known as the district collector or deputy commissioner, is a career civil servant who serves as the executive head of a district's administration in India. The specific name depends on the state or union territo ...

and his deputy and registrar, assisted by native officers. For cases exceeding 500 rupees, appeals were allowed to the Sudder Dewanny Adawlut. The court was abolished after the

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...

.Students' Britannica India
by Dale Hoiberg, Indu Ramchandani

References

{{Reflist

External links

English Law in India
by Anil Chandra Banerjee

* ttps://books.google.com/books?id=meN0GwpRWhUC&dq=Sadr+Diwani+Adalat&pg=PA273 History of Medieval Indiaby Chand, Hukam]
Administrative System in India
by U.B. Singh Legal history of India Hindi words and phrases Urdu-language words and phrases

Meaning

History

See also

References

External links