The Supreme Court at Calcutta, which began work in 1774, was provided for by which Act?
- A.The Pitt’s India Act, 1784
- B.The Regulating Act, 1773
- C.The Charter Act, 1813
- D.The Indian High Courts Act, 1861
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, the Regulating Act of 1773. The Regulating Act made the Governor of Bengal the Governor General, gave him a council of four, and provided for a Supreme Court at Calcutta, which was established by a royal charter and began sitting in 1774 with Sir Elijah Impey as its first Chief Justice. Option A, Pitt's India Act of 1784, created the Board of Control in London and so set up the double government of the Company and the Crown, but it did not create a court. Option C, the Charter Act of 1813, dealt with the Company's trade monopoly, education and missionaries. Option D, the Indian High Courts Act of 1861, abolished the Supreme Courts and the Sadar courts and replaced them with High Courts, the first three of which opened at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras in 1862, so it marks the end of this court rather than its beginning.
Read the full article: British Administration in India: Services, Police and Courts
Practice Questions
View allWho among the following is called the father of the civil services in India?
- A.Warren Hastings
- B.Lord Cornwallis
- C.Lord Wellesley
- D.Lord Dalhousie
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Cornwallis, Governor General from 1786 to 1793, is called the father of the civil services in India because he fixed adequate salaries for the Company's servants, forbade them from carrying on private trade or taking presents, and made promotion depend on seniority instead of patronage, which together turned a trading…
Read the full explanation →Which Charter Act ended the patronage of the Company and introduced open competition for recruitment to the civil service?
- A.Charter Act of 1793
- B.Charter Act of 1813
- C.Charter Act of 1853
- D.Charter Act of 1833
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This Act took away the Company's right to nominate its civil servants and threw recruitment open to competition, after which the committee headed by Lord Macaulay in 1854 settled the syllabus and the first competitive examination was held in London in 1855.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first Indian to join the Indian Civil Service?
- A.Romesh Chunder Dutt
- B.Satyendranath Tagore
- C.Surendranath Banerjee
- D.Anandamohan Bose
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Satyendranath Tagore, an elder brother of Rabindranath Tagore, succeeded in the London examination and joined the Indian Civil Service in 1864, nine years after the first competitive examination was held, and served in the Bombay Presidency.
Read the full explanation →Which Act laid the foundation of the modern police system in India?
- A.The Government of India Act, 1858
- B.The Indian Police Act, 1861
- C.The Indian Evidence Act, 1872
- D.The Indian Councils Act, 1892
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Passed on the advice of the Police Commission of 1860, this Act gave every province an Inspector General, every range a Deputy Inspector General and every district a Superintendent of Police working under the district magistrate, with the village chowkidar at the base, and that structure is still recognisable in…
Read the full explanation →The Indian Police Commission of 1902-03, known as the Fraser Commission, recommended the creation of which body?
- A.A Department of Criminal Intelligence
- B.The Imperial Police Service
- C.A Federal Court of India
- D.A Public Service Commission
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The commission appointed in 1902 under Sir Andrew Fraser reported in 1903 and asked for better pay, training schools, the recruitment of Indians as officers and a central agency to collect and share criminal intelligence; the Department of Criminal Intelligence was created in 1903 and grew into the central intelligence…
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