JUDICIARY - VIIII CIVICS

 

 

                                                                 CLASS - VIII

                                                   SOCIAL SCIENCE - CIVICS 

                                                                  JUDICIARY

• Supreme Court plays important role of safe­guarding the fundamental rights of citizens which includes provid­ing fair justice also.
• Impartiality and Intelligence are some of the important characteristics of the independent judiciary in a democratic setup.
• Therefore, the judiciary plays a crucial role in the functioning of India’s democracy.

 

 

What is the Role of the Judiciary:

Upholding the Law and Enforcing Fundamental Rights: Every citizen of India can approach the Supreme Court or the High Court

(i) Dispute Resolution- The judicial system provides a mechanism of courts for resolving disputes between citizens, citizens and the government, two state governments and the central and state governments.

(ii) Judicial Review- The judiciary has the power to strike down particular laws passed by the Parliament if it believes that these are a violation of the basic structure of the Constitution

(iii) Upholding the law & enforcing Fundamental Rights – Every citizen of India can approach the Supreme Court or the High Court if his/her Fundamental Rights have been violated.

 

What is an Independent Judiciary:

The Independence of Judiciary means:

1. Other branches of government – the legislature and the executive – cannot interfere in the work of the judiciary. The courts are not under the government and do not act on their behalf.
2. Independence of the judiciary allows the courts to play a central role in ensuring that there is no misuse of power by the legislature and the executive.
3. Judiciary is the guardian of the constitution and defender of fundamental rights of the people.
4. Independence of the judiciary also plays a crucial role in protecting the Fundamental Rights of citizens.

 

 

What is the Structure of Courts in India:

(i) There are three different levels of courts in India.

1. District Court: The courts that most people interact with are called subordinate or district courts or Tehsil level court.
2. High Court: Each state has a High Court which is the highest court of that state.
3. Supreme Court : The Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial authority. It is located in New Delhi and is presided over the Chief Justice of India. The decisions made by the Supreme Court are binding on all other courts in India.

 (ii) In India, we have an integrated judicial system, meaning that the decision made by higher courts are binding on the lower Courts as all these different levels of courts are connected to each other.

(iii) Appellate System: This means that a person can appeal to a higher court if they believe that the judgement passed by the lower court is not just. This system exists in India. It is another way that defines the integration of all the levels of courts.

What are the Different branches of the Legal System?

 

Criminal Law

• ·   Deals with conduct or acts that the law defines as offences
•   Eg: Theft, harassing a woman, dowry, murder 
•    It usually begins with the lodging of a First Information Report (FIR) with the police who investigate the crime after which a case is filed in the court.If found guilty, the accused can be sent to jail and also fined.

 

Civil Law

• · Deals with any harm or injury to the rights of individuals
• ·         Eg: Disputes relating to sale of land, purchase of goods, rent matters, divorce cases
• ·         A petition has to be filed before the relevant court by the affected party only
• ·         The court gives the specific relief asked for.

 

Does Everyone Have Access to the Courts:

(i) In principle, all citizens of India can access the courts in this country. This implies that every citizen has a right to justice through the courts.

(ii) Legal procedures involve a lot of money and paperwork which take up a lot of time. Poor people often avoid to go the court to get justice.

(iii) The Supreme Court devised a mechanism of Public Interest Litigation or (PIL) to increase access to justice in 1980’s. It allowed any individual or organization to file a PIL in the High Court or the Supreme Court on behalf of those whose right were being violated.

(iv) The legal process was simplified and even a letter or telegram addressed to the Supreme Court or the High Court could be treated as a PIL.

(v) The court exercise a crucial role in interpreting the Fundamental Rights of Citizens.

(vi) The judiciary serves as a check on the powers of the executive and the legislature and protecting the Fundamental Rights of the citizens.

.

The phrase ‘justice delayed is justice denied’ is often used to characterize extended time period that courts take. However, in spite of this there is no denying that the judiciary has played a crucial role in democratic India, serving as a check on the powers of the executive and the legislature as well as in protecting the Fundamental Rights of citizens.

 

 

RULING THE COUNTRYSIDE - VIII - SOCIAL SCIENCE - HISTORY - CHAPTER 3

                                       
                                   

                                      CLASS VIII  -HISTORY

                          CHAPTER – 3, RULING COUNTRYSIDE

The Company Become the Diwan

The East India Company became the Diwan of Bengal, on 12 August 1765. As Diwan, the Company became the chief financial administrator of the territory under its control. The Company needed to administer the land and organize its revenue resources. It needed to be done in a way that could yield enough revenue to meet the growing expenses of the company.

Revenue for the Company

The Company’s aim was to increase the revenue to buy fine cotton and silk cloth as cheaply as possible. Within a span of five years, the value of goods bought by the Company in Bengal doubled.

Before 1765, Company purchased goods in India by importing gold and silver from Britain. Now it was financed by the revenue collected in Bengal.

Bengal's economy was facing a deep crisis1770s. Artisanal production was in decline, and agricultural cultivation showed signs of collapse. Then in 1770, a terrible famine killed ten million people in Bengal. British didn’t give attention to this as their main task was to make money by trade.

The need to improve agriculture

In 1793, the Company introduced the Permanent Settlement, under the reign of Lord Cornwallis.

By the terms of the settlement, the rajas and taluqdars were recognized as zamindars, who were asked to collect rent from the peasants and pay revenue to the Company.

The amount to be paid was fixed permanently. This settlement would ensure a regular flow of revenue into the company’s coffers and at the same time encourage the zamindars to invest in improving the land.

The problem

Zamindars did not pay attention to the condition of the land and tried to keep more and more money left after collection.

In the villages, the cultivators found the system extremely oppressive. The rent they paid to the zamindar was high so they took a loan from the moneylender, and when they failed to pay the rent they were evicted from the land.

Because of the less revenue collection, British tried some other new method of revenue generation such as Mahalwari system and Ryotwari system

A new system was devised

Holt Mackenzie devised the new system which came into effect in 1822. This was introduced in North India and came to be known as Mahalwari settlement.

Under his directions, collectors went from village to village, inspecting the land, measuring the fields, and recording the customs and rights of different groups. The estimated revenue of each plot within a village was added up to calculate the revenue that each village (mahal) had to pay.

This demand was to be revised periodically, not permanently fixed.

 The charge of collecting the revenue and paying it to the Company was given to the village headman, rather than the zamindar. This system came to be known as the Mahalwari settlement.

The Munro system

In the British territories in the south, a new system was devised known as the ryotwar (or ryotwari).

Ryotwari was initiated by Captain Alexander Read and Thomas Munro. This system was extended all over south India.

The settlement had to be made directly with the cultivators (ryots). Their fields had to be carefully and separately surveyed before the revenue assessment was made.

British officials were appointed to collect the revenue and used coercive methods for revenue collection.

All was not well

In order to increase the income from land, revenue officials fixed high revenue demand. Peasants were unable to pay, ryots fled the countryside, and villages became deserted in many regions.

Crops for Europe

By the late eighteenth century, the Company tried to expand the cultivation of opium and indigo. The Company forced cultivators in various parts of India to produce jute, tea, sugarcane, wheat, cotton and rice in various parts of India

.

Does colour have a history?

The rich blue colour was produced from a plant called indigo. it was on high demand in Europe as it was used for dyeing purpose

The blue dye used in the Morris prints in nineteenth-century Britain was manufactured from indigo plants cultivated in India.

India was the biggest supplier of indigo in the world at that time.

Why the demand for Indian indigo?

Small amounts of Indian indigo reached the European market and its price was very high. Therefore, European cloth manufacturers had to depend on another plant called woad to make violet and blue dyes.

 Indigo produced a rich blue colour, whereas the dye from woad was pale and dull.

By the end of the eighteenth century, the demand for Indian indigo grew further because of the industrialization in Britain and fall in the supply from the West Indies and America collapsed for a variety of reasons.

Britain turns to India

In Europe, the demand for indigo was high, the British used their colonies India and Africa to cultivate Indigo.

Commercial agents and officials of the Company began investing in indigo production. The Company officials were attracted by the prospect of high profits and came to India to become indigo planters.

How was indigo cultivated?

There were two main systems of indigo cultivation –

Nij and ryoti.

Nij cultivation - Within the system of nij cultivation, the planter produced indigo in lands that he directly controlled.

He either bought the land or rented it from other zamindars and produced indigo by directly employing hired labourers.

The problem with nij cultivation

This cultivation needed fertile and big lands and it was difficult to get big areas as they were already highly populated. For this, the planter had to evict farmers which led to conflicts. The planters found it difficult to expand the area.

Nij cultivation on a large scale also required many ploughs and bullocks. At the same time, its cultivation, the cultivation of rice also took place that is why ploughs were not available on rent too.

Indigo on the land of ryots

In Ryoti system, the planters forced the ryots to sign a contract an agreement (satta).

Those who signed the contract got cash advances from planters at low rates of interest to produce indigo.

The peasants got a very low prices for the indigo they produced and the cycle of loans never ended.

After an indigo harvest, the land could not be sown with rice, as indigo production reduced the fertility of the soil

The “Blue Rebellion” and After

In March 1859 thousands of ryots in Bengal refused to grow indigo.

As the rebellion spread, ryots refused to pay rents to the planters and attacked indigo factories.

The Gomasthas – agents of planters – who came to collect rent were beaten up. The Bengal ryots had the support of the local zamindars and village headmen in their rebellion against the planters.

The indigo peasants believed that the British government would support them in their struggle against the planters.

After the Revolt of 1857, the British government was worried about the possibility of another popular rebellion.

The government set up the Indigo Commission to enquire into the system of indigo production. The Commission asked the ryots to fulfill their existing contracts but also told them that they could refuse to produce indigo in the future.

Indigo production collapsed in Bengal, after the revolt. The planters now shifted their operations to Bihar.

When Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa, a peasant from Bihar persuaded him to visit Champaran and see the plight of the indigo cultivators. In 1917, he visited which marked the beginning of the Champaran movement against the indigo planters.