Independence of the Judiciary

The aim of this chapter is to determine whether the Bombay High Court functioned independently of the other branches of government in the colonial era. We will see that the nature of relations between the executive government and the High Court in colonial Bombay were strained, even though the High Court was not meant to play the policing role of Crown courts under the East India Company regime. We will see that colonial courts in Bombay decided criminal cases quite independently of the other branches of government, and that the average criminal conviction rate was a modest 50 per cent. However, we will also see that important and sensational political cases, usually involving sedition, were typically decided by the High Court in favour of the government.