162 



BELIEF OF INDEBTED AGRICULTURISTS. 



fees from the costs awarded in cases before a subordinate Judge not 

 exceeding Us. 100, unless the Court certifies that professional assis- 

 tance was necessary to the proper conduct of the case. The appoint- 

 ment of a pleader by the Court in cases where the debtor needs 

 counsel but cannot obtain it, is also provided for. This has been 

 suggested in several quarters, and seems reasonable. 



I must here venture to express my regret that a material simplifica- 

 tion of the civil procedure with a view to saving delay and expense has 

 not been found to be feasible. I see from official returns that in the 

 Bombay Presidency in 1877, the average duration of uncontested 

 suits was 132 days, and of contested suits 272. It is no doubt true 

 that the intricacy of a suit has no necessary connection with the amount 

 in issue, and that a mortgage for Rs. 50 may present the same 

 features as one for Rs. 5,000 ; and it may be argued with much show 

 of reason that a Procedure Code should provide for all possible cir- 

 cumstances, and be of general application. At the same time, 

 looking to the fact that, out of about fourteen hundred thousand civil 

 suits of all kinds disposed of annually by the Courts of all grades in 

 British India, some twelve hundred thousand, or 85 per cent., are 

 for sums under Rs. 100, and six hundred and thirty thousand, or 44 

 per cent, for sums less than Rs. 20, I cannot but feel, and I think 

 the people feel too, that our Civil Procedure Code, with its six 

 hundred and fifty sections and all that they involve, is in minor cases 

 a burden almost too heavy to be borne. I trust the day may come 

 when not only Deccan ryots but all India will obtain some relief 

 in this respect. 



Having thus noticed the proposed reorganization of the Courts, 

 I proceed to explain some important changes contemplated in the 

 substantive law which they administer. These group themselves 

 round two main heads the definition of a debtor's liability and the 

 mode and extent of its enforcement. 



A court proceeding to determine the amount of a debtor's 

 liability is met in limine (in our four districts at any rate) by 

 the undenjable fact that, as MR. PEDDER expresses it, 'the passing 

 of a bond by a native of India is often of no more value as proof 

 of a debt he thereby acknowledges than the confession by a man 

 under torture of the crime he is charged with.' The Commission 

 urge two points, that the money-lenders have learned, through our 

 system, to use and rely upon bonds almost exclusively, and that 



