The Ṣadr Dīwānī ʿAdālat ( ur, , bn, সদর দেওয়ানি আদালত ) (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 on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

established at

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, 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-General ...

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 founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

, assisted by native judges and officers of revenue.

Meaning

The term is in the

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' 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 e ...

'' 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 Hindu Indians to be governed by Hindu law in matters of property, and not as before by Muslim law, although they were still subject to Muslim criminal law. In each of the districts of British India, subordinate courts of revenue with definitive jurisdiction of up to 500 rupees, were established in which the judges were the relevant

District Collector A District Collector-cum-District Magistrate (also known as Deputy Commissioner in some states) is an All India Service officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) cadre who is responsible for ''land revenue collection'', ''canal reven ...

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 the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...

.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&pg=PA273&lpg=PA273&dq=Sadr+Diwani+Adalat&source=bl&ots=mvXntqZmbo&sig=9nSOMEoF-jiNNvgOjQfalXF0JGY#PPA273,M1 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