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The territorial area of Bangladesh originally being a part and parcel of the then Indian Sub-continent, the history of its legal system may be traced back from the year of 1726,when King George-I issued a Charter changing the judicial administration of the Presidency towns of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, through which the Civil and Criminal Courts, as established, started deriving their authority from the King. It is to be noted that during Mughal Empire the East India Company by taking...
The territorial area of Bangladesh originally being a part and parcel of the then Indian Sub-continent, the history of its legal system may be traced back from the year of 1726,when King George-I issued a Charter changing the judicial administration of the Presidency towns of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, through which the Civil and Criminal Courts, as established, started deriving their authority from the King. It is to be noted that during Mughal Empire the East India Company by taking settlement and with permission from Mughal Badshah created the three presidency towns namely Madras, Bombay and Calcutta and said East India Company introduced the English legal system for administration of the presidency towns and thus the English Judicial system got entry into the territory of Indian Sub-continent. The filing of the appeals from the then India in the Privy-Council in England was introduced by the said Charter of 1726 and thereafter to bring about change in the management of the then East India Company, the East India Company Regulating Act, 1773 was introduced to place the East India Company under the control of the British Government and provision was made for establishment of a Supreme Court of judicature at Fort William, Calcutta, through Charter or Letters Patent. The Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bangal was established by Letters Patent issued on March 26, 1774, which as a Court of Record had power and authority to dispose of all complaints against the Majesty's subjects in respect of any crime, suit or action arisen within the territory of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. By an Act passed in 1833 the Privy-Council was transformed into an Imperial Court of unimpeachable authority, which played a great role as an unifying force for establishment of rule of law in the Indian Sub-continent. The judicial system of the then India was reorganized by introducing the Indian High Court's Act 1861 by which High Courts were established, abolishing the Supreme Courts at Fort William (Calcutta), Madras and Bombay, and the High Courts established were conferred with Civil, Criminal, Admiralty, Testamentary, Matrimonial jurisdictions with Original and Appellate Jurisdiction. With the transfer of power from the British Parliament to the people on division of the then India, the High Court of Bengal (order) 1947 was promulgated under the Indian Independence Act, 1947, and the High Court of judicature for East Bengal at Dhaka was established as a separate High Court for the then East Pakistan and the said High Court was commonly known as the Dhaka High Court and the same was vested with all Appellate, Civil and Original jurisdictions. With the enforcement of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1956, the Supreme Court of Pakistan was established as the apex Court of the country, consisting of East Pakistan and West Pakistan, in place of Federal Court, with the appellate jurisdiction to hear the decisions of the High Courts established in the provinces of the Pakistan. The Dhaka High Court had the jurisdiction to issue writs in the nature of Habeas Corpus, Mandamus, Prohibition, Quo-warranto and Certiorari, with further authority to declare any law promulgated violating the provisions of the Constitution as bad and void.
Supreme Court of Bangladesh
