BELIEF OF INDEBTED AGEICULTURISTS. 



same section will remain intact. Thirdly, sitting 'in banco. 3 The special 

 Judge and the assistants with his authorization are enabled to stay the 

 proceedings in any case pending in a subordinate Court, and to sit with 

 the Judge as a Bench to try it. The power of withdrawing a case and 

 trying it himself, or transferring it to another Court, which the district 

 Judge possesses under section 25 of the Code of Civil Procedure, will 

 also be exercised by the special Judge, and by his assistants with his 

 authorization. These provisions will enable important cases to be tried by 

 superior officers or a Bench, and promote that exercise by such officers 

 of their personal example, and that enlargement of their practical 

 experience, which are thought so desirable by the Secretary of State. 



In concluding this part of the subject, I should explain that the 

 amended jurisdiction will, for convenience' sake, supersede altogether 

 that under the Mofassal Small-Cause-Courts Act, and thus litigants 

 who are not agriculturists will, in money cases, obtain throughout the 

 four districts the special advantages designed for the latter. Also 

 no special provision is made for subordinate Judges moving about 

 and sitting at different places, because they can be required to do 

 so under the existing law. 



The procedure followed by the Courts under their new jurisdiction 

 will be pretty nearly that of Small-Cause-Courts, which again differs 

 but little, except as to recording evidence at length, from that of the 

 Code of the Civil Procedure. One exception, however, is so import- 

 ant as to require special mention. The Commission pointed out that 

 the proportion of cases decided in Bombay ex partc, or in the absence 

 of the defendant, vastly exceeded that in any other part of India. 

 In the four districts the proportion ranged in 1876 from 60 to 74 

 per cent., and last year from 57 to 66 per cent. This has been 

 ascribed to a variety of causes, of which the chief probably are ignor- 

 ance of the ryot that he has a defence, want of means to pay a 

 pleader, conviction that the Court, for want of time or other reasons, 

 will not go into the merits of his case or look berr'nd the bond, fear 

 of irritating his creditor by a defence or fraudulent non-service of 

 summons. The various provisions of the present Bill, however, 

 completely alter the position. The obligation laid on the Court of 

 going into the whole merits of the case, and, behind the bond, if 

 necessary, to which I shall presently allude, will remove the first 

 three of the above causes of backwardness on the ryot's part, 'and 

 will probably lead to his more frequent voluntary appearance. But 



