The Honourable Chief Justice Sir Basil Scott

Sir Basil Scott (1859 - 1926) was the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court.

Early life

Sir Basil Scott was the son of Henry Scott educated at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

. He passed B.A. in 1882 and M.A. in 1886. He was called to Bar

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...

and came out as a barrister to practice in the Bombay High Court in 1884.

Career

Scott's uncle Basil Lang, was the Advocate General and leading in practitioner of the

Bombay High Court The High Court of Bombay is the high court of the states of Maharashtra and Goa in India, and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is seated primarily at Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), and is one of the ol ...

. Scott became acting Advocate-General in 1899 and was also appointed permanent

Advocate-General of Bombay The Advocate-General of Bombay was charged with advising the Government of the British administered Bombay Presidency on legal matters. The Presidency existed from 1668 to 1947. Prior to 1858, when it was administered by the East India Company, th ...

. In 1906 he was elevated as Puisne Judge and after retirement of Sir

Lawrence Hugh Jenkins Sir Lawrence Hugh Jenkins, KCIE (22 December 1857 - 1 October 1928) was a British judge. He was the Chief Justice of Calcutta and Bombay High Court, as well as a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.Great Britain. India Office ...

, he was appointed to the post of Chief Justice in 1908. It is known that some of his decisions were reversed by the Privy Council and he had to some extent, the prevailing prejudices of the Anglo-Indians of his time Scott was the member of the

Rowlatt Commission The Rowlatt Committee was a Sedition Committee appointed in 1917 by the British Indian Government with Sidney Rowlatt, an Anglo-Egyptian judge, as its president. Background The purpose of the Rowlatt Committee was to evaluate political terrorism ...

and also the head of Special Tribunal under the Special Tribunal Act in 1910 to deal with the case against

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (), Marathi pronunciation: �inaːjək saːʋəɾkəɾ also commonly known as Veer Savarkar (28 May 1883 – 26 February 1966), was an Indian politician, activist, and writer. Savarkar developed the Hindu nationalis ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Basil 1859 births 1926 deaths Knights Bachelor British India judges 20th-century English judges Chief Justices of the Bombay High Court People from Bombay Presidency British people in colonial India