HC Deb 25 February 1884 vol 284 cc1867-8
SIR GEORGE CAMPBELL

asked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether the Secretary of State proposes to allow the Act passed by the Governor General of India in Council, No. III. of 1684, by which (1) magistrates of districts are deprived of the power of summary trial of Europeans for minor offences against Natives, which they have exercised since the reign of George III.; and (2) every criminal or party to a criminal trial, European or Native, can demand, as of absolute right, postponement of the trial, for the purpose of making application to a distant High Court for its transfer to another tribunal, and that without any regard to the reasonableness or unreasonableness of the demand, or to the inconvenience to witnesses and other parties, and the possible perversion of justice by means of such delay; whether the Council of India unanimously approved of the Bill as proposed to be modified last summer; and, whether they have been consulted on its subsequent transformation, either before or since it was passed, or now will be consulted; and, if consulted, whether they have approved of it?

MR. J. K. CROSS

Sir, the authentic copy of the Indian Criminal Procedure Code, 1882, Amendment Act, which the Governor General is by statute required to transmit to the Secretary of State, was only received by last mail. No Member of the Council of India dissented from the Secretary of State's despatch of the 8th of November last, concurring in the modifications of the Bill recommended by the Government of India in their letter of August 10. The further modifications of the Bill were not referred home by the Government of India for the consideration of the Secretary of State in Council, but were made during its passage through the Governor General's Council. I may remind my hon. Friend that an Act which has been passed by the Legislative Council, and assented to by the Governor General, does not require to be "allowed" by the Secretary of State in Council. It takes effect in duo course, unless Her Majesty signifies her disallowance of it. The Papers I have referred to are now being printed for presentation to Parliament.