Growth of the Central Legislature

• According to the Montagu-Chelmsford Report, the germ of legislative power of the Government of India lies embedded in Elizabeth’s Charter of 1600, which authorized the East India Company to make reasonable laws, constitutions, orders, and ordinances not repugnant to English law for the good governance of the Company and its officers.

• No copies of any laws made under the early Charters are known to exist.

• The subsequent Charters changed the powers of the Company according to its needs.

• The Charter of 1726 empowered the Governor-in-Council and the three Presidencies to make laws, ordinances, and regulations in their respective jurisdictions.

• The Regulating Act of 1773 required that the Governments of Madras and Bombay must send copies of their laws and orders to the Government of Bengal.

• It is unclear whether the Governor-General of Bengal had any right to modify the laws sent by Madras and Bombay.

• The Act of 1807 empowered the Governor-in-Council of Madras and Bombay to make regulations.

• In short, the power of legislation was exercised by the Executive Governments in the three Presidencies.

• Every President had its own system of laws, which might differ from those existing in other Presidencies.

Charter Act of 1833

• The Charter Act of 1853 is a great landmark in the field of legislation.

• It simplified the legislative machinery.

• The Act deprived the Presidencies of Madras and Bombay of their powers of legislation.

• The Governor-General-in-Council was given the powers to make laws on all subjects for the whole of India.

• The Act also provided for the appointment of a Law Member in the Governor-General’s Executive Council.

• The duties of the Law Member were purely legislative.

Charter Act of 1853

• The Charter Act of 1853 made the Law Member a full member of the Executive Council of the Governor-General.

• The provinces were allowed to send one representative each to the Government of India.

• No measure concerning any province was to be considered unless the representative from that province was present.

• The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Calcutta was made an ex-officio member of the Council, and one more member was appointed.

• The Governor-General was given the power to appoint two more civil servants as members of the Council.

• The Council in its legislative capacity consisted of 12 members: the Governor-General, Commander-in-Chief, 4 members of the Executive Council, and 6 legislative members.

• Out of the 6 legislative members, 4 were representatives from the provinces, and the other 2 were the Chief Justice and puisne judge.

• The representatives from the Provinces were to be given £5,000 annually.

• It was clear that at least one member had local knowledge.

• Experience showed that the Council, as constituted by the Act of 1853, “evinced an inconvenient tendency to interfere with the Executive.”

• Sir Charles Wood complained in the House of Commons that the Council had become a debating society or petty Parliament.

• Members of the Council asked all kinds of questions from the Government, putting it in an awkward position.

• It was pointed out that the Council had become an Anglo-Indian House of Commons.