r 88

ment and Charter, creating the Supreme Court of
Bengal, reserved a similar right of appeal to the
Sovereign in Council. The same right was also
reserved in reference to the Recorder’s Courts and the
Supreme Courts of Madras and Bombay. The
Council was empowered to refuse or admit the appeal,
and to reform, correct, or vary such decision, according
to the Royal pleasure.

When the Government of Bengal was, in 1781,
given the power of a Sudder Court over the provincial
 courts in civil cases, an appeal in cases of over
Rs. 50,000 was allowed to the Privy Council. The
Supreme Court framed its own rules for the admission
of such appeals, with the approval of the Crown;
while Regulation XVI. of 1797 provided similar rules
for such appeals from the Sudder Court, the limit of
time being fixed at six months. In 1818 a similar
right was reserved in regard to the Sudder Courts of
Madras and Bombay.

{n criminal cases of felony, no right of appeal
was recognised without the leave of the court below.

A permanent Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council for determining appeals was first constituted
by 3 and 4, William IV, Cap. 41, in 1833. By this
statute the President of the Privy Council, the Lord
Chancellor, the holder of the great Seal, the Lord
Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, the Master of the
Rolls Court, the Vice-Chancellor, the Chief Justice of
the Common Pleas and the Chief Baron of the