SIR MANCHERJEE BHOWNAG-GREE (Bethnal Green, N.E.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India when any alterations or modifications were last made in the rules and regulations governing the submission of appeals to higher authorities over the orders and decisions of provincial officials and administrations in India, and if he will place upon the Table of the House a copy of the rules and regulations now in force; also if he will state how many appeals of this character were submitted for the consideration of the Secretary of State in Council during the six years ending 31st December, 1904, giving the number in each year separately, and showing how many of these were forwarded to the Secretary of State for orders, and how many were withheld in India, and how these statistics compared with the corresponding figures for the six years ending 31st December, 1898.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Mr. BROURICK, Surrey, Guildford)The last occasion when alterations 453 were made in the rules governing the submission of appeals to the Government of India from the orders of subordinate authorities and to the Secretary of State in Council from the orders of the Government of India and the Governments of Madras and Bombay was in January last, when the rules as last revised were published in the Gazette of India. The rules will be found in the issue of that Gazette for the 21st January, 1905, which is in the Library; but I shall be ready to lay them on the Table if my hon. friend will move for them. The statistics asked for by my hon. friend cover a period of twelve years, and it will take some time to collect them.