HC Deb 23 March 1876 vol 228 cc474-5
MR. FORTESCUE HARRISON

asked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether his attention has been directed to the Presidency Magistrates Bill, now before the Council of the Governor General of India, and particularly to paragraphs 88 and 89 of the said Bill, which, while authorising a single magistrate to sentence a year's imprisonment and forbids an appeal on behalf of the prisoner, expressly provides for an appeal to a superior court whenever the Government is dissatisfied with the magistrate for acquitting a prisoner charged with an offence making him liable to the same term of imprisonment; and, if so, whether the powers now sought to be conferred by this Bill are not in excess of what the Legislative Council of India, as at present constituted, had authority to grant; but, whether this be so or not, to ask if the Secretary of State for India will at once take steps to prevent the Bill, in its present shape, passing into law?

LORD GEORGE HAMILTON

The Presidency Magistrates Bill appears to have been introduced into the Indian Legislative Council before the receipt by the Governor General of the despatch of the 31st March, 1874, requesting him to furnish the Secretary of State in Council with information concerning intended Government legislation. We know, however, from papers received by the last mail, that this Bill has been republished in The Gazette with a view of inviting criticism. Its chief object is to apply the rules of the Indian Code of Criminal Procedure to the jurisdiction of magistrates in the Presidency towns. There is no doubt that the measure, which consists of 251 sections, is on the whole expedient; but as to the power of appeal against an acquittal, it is a point for consideration whether it should apply to the Presidency towns. The matter will not fail to have the attention of the Secretary of State in Council. At present he must either assent to or veto a Bill in its entirety, and it is very inconvenient to be compelled to veto a measure of this magnitude on account of one, possibly, objectionable clause. I am advised that the present enactment is not in excess of the legislative power of the Government of India.