§ MR. ONSLOWasked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether it is in contemplation by the Government of India to change the existing Law relating to the trial of Europeans in India; and, if so, whether he would guarantee that no sanction would be given to such a proposal by Her Majesty's Government until this House has had an opportunity of discussing the propriety of such a measure?
§ MR. J. K. CROSSThe Government of India has now in contemplation a change in the law relating to the trial of Europeans in certain cases; and the late Secretary of State, at the request of that Government, sanctioned the introduction into the Indian Legislative Council of a Bill to carry out this change. Under the existing Criminal Code, outside the Presidency towns no European can be sentenced by a Sessions Judge to more than 12 months' imprisonment, nor by a first-class magistrate to more than three months' imprisonment; the Sessions Judge and the first-class magistrate being European British subjects. The Government of India has recommended that these limited powers of jurisdiction should be extended to certain selected Natives in the Government service. The actual proposal is that, if the Government appoints a Native to be a Judge of a Sessions Court or a district magistrate, he shall, ex officio, have the same jurisdiction over Europeans, as if he were himself an European; and that the local governments shall be authorized 305 to confer similar magisterial powers upon selected members of the covenanted Civil Service of the Native Civil Service—constituted under the statutory Rules made under 33 Vict., c. 3—and of the non-regulation commissions, and upon cantonment magistrates who are already exercising first-class magisterial powers, and who are, in the opinion of Government, fit to be intrusted with these further powers. It may be as well to state that for the last 20 years there have been Native Judges of the High Court with jurisdiction and powers precisely the same as those of Europeans; and that for 30 years there have been in the Presidency towns Native magistrates who have constantly and satisfactorily exercised criminal jurisdiction over Europeans in those towns. The Procedure Code gives to every European British subject, who considers himself unlawfully detained in custody, the right to apply to the High Court for an order to bring him up before that Court. In reply to the concluding sentence of the hon. Member's Question, I may say that, as Her Majesty's Government does not wish unnecessarily to delay the accomplishment of these reforms, it is not intended to submit the question to the House of Commons.