Conflict Arising out of the Dual Judicial System & Judicial Committee of the Privy Council

For nearly ninety years, from the Regulating Act of 1773 until 1861, British India ran two entirely separate court systems that had nothing structurally in common — and both of them could, in theory, be appealed to the same court six thousand miles away in London. This topic is the bridge between that long mess and the single institution, the Privy Council, that eventually had to referee it.

In two minutes

The dual judicial system — Crown courts like the Supreme Court running alongside the Company's Sadar Adalats — produced decades of jurisdictional conflict that only the Indian High Courts Act of 1861 resolved, and throughout that period the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council stood above both systems as the final court of appeal.

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