§ SIR WILLIAM WEDDERBURNI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether he will grant a Return for the last three years showing the number and nature of the civil and criminal appeals from the decisions of Political Officers in native states disposed of by the Bombay Government; whether he will state what is the procedure followed in the trial of these appeals; whether the parties have an opportunity of being heard in person or by counsel; and whether any member of the Bombay Government is a trained judicial officer qualified to dispose of capital and other cases as a final Court of Appeal.
§ *LORD G. HAMILTONThe Return for which the hon. Member asks cannot be supplied from information in this country, but I will communicate with the Government of Bombay on the subject. In the case to which he refers, whether civil or criminal, the parties are heard either in person or by counsel in the Political Courts of first instance, and again in the Political Courts of Appeal. In cases where the decisions of these courts are further reviewed by the Government of Bombay, the appeals and rejoinders may be, and generally are, prepared by counsel and submitted in writing; and if it is found necessary that any issue should be argued by the parties in person or by counsel, the case is remanded to the local Court of Appeal for the purpose; but parties and counsel do not appear before the Governor in Council. The Government of Bombay includes one member who has held high office, political and judicial, in Kathiawar; but it considers these matters as a Government, with the assistance of its legal advisers and its judicial department, and does not depend exclusively upon such legal or judicial training as may be possessed by any of its members.