132 



THE PREDECESSORS OF THE 



Sudder Ameens were also appointed ; 98 and the heads of 

 villages were made Munsifs within their respective villages." 



Native Judges, afterwards called Principal Sudder Ameens, 100 

 were subsequently appointed under the provisions of Regula- 

 tion VII of 1827. 



All these Courts were to be guided in their proceedings 

 and decisions by the Regulations, and in cases for which no 

 specific rule might exist the Judges were to act according to 

 justice and equity and good conscience ; 101 but in suits regard- 

 ing succession, inheritance, marriage and caste, and all 

 religious usages and institutions, the Mahomedan Laws with 

 respect to Mahomedans, and the Hindoo Laws with regard to 

 Hindoos, as expounded by the Mahomedan and Hindoo Law 

 Officers of the Courts, were to be considered as the general 

 rules by which the Judges were to form their decisions. 102 



Their jurisdiction in civil cases extended over all Natives 

 and other persons not British subjects, and also over all 

 British subjects (except King's Officers serving under the 

 Presidency of Fort St. George, and the Covenanted Civil 

 Servants of the Company and their Military Officers) so far 

 as not to allow them to reside at a greater distance from 

 Fort St. Greorge than ten miles, unless they executed a bond, 

 in the form prescribed by Regulation XVIII of 1802, to 

 render themselves amenable to the Company's Courts in all 

 suits of a civil nature that might be instituted against them 

 by Natives or other persons, not British subjects, in which 

 the amount claimed did not exceed Rs. 500. 103 The criminal 

 jurisdiction was limited to Natives and Europeans not being 



98 Regulation VII of 1809, VIII of 1816, II of 1821, III of 1833. 



99 Regulation IV of 1816 ; and see Wilson's History of British India, vol. 

 ii, chap. xii. 



wo Act XXIV of 1836. 



i Q1 Regulation I of 1802, s. 13 ; II of 1802, s. 17. 



102 Regulation III of 1802. 



103 Regulation II of 1802, sees. 4 and 6. 



