Managing Personal Finance in Contemporary World

THE HAMLYN LECTURES
TWELFTH SERIES

THE COMMON LAW IN INDIA

AUSTRALIA
The Law Book Co. of Australasia Pty Ltd.
Sydney : Melbourne : Brisbane
CANADA AND U.S.A.
The Carswell Company Ltd.
Toronto
INDIA
N. M. Tripathi Private Ltd.
Bombay
NEW ZEALAND
Sweet & Maxwell (N.Z.) Ltd.
Wellington
PAKISTAN
Pakistan Law House
Karachi

The Common Law
in India

BY

M. C. SETALVAD, Padma Vibhufhan,
Attorney-General of India

Published under the auspices of
THE HAMLYN TRUST

LONDON

STEVENS

& SONS
I960

LIMITED

First published in I960 by
Stevens & Sons Limited
of 11 New Fetter Lane in
the City of London and
printed in Great Britain
by The Eastern Press Ltd.
of London and Reading

Stevens

& Sons, Limited,
1960

London

CONTENTS
The Hamlyn Trust

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1.

CIVIL L A W

3.

CRIMINAL L A W

4.

T H E INDIAN CONSTITUTION

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page vii

R I S E O FTHE COMMON L A W

2.

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EPILOGUE

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6

3

u s
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168
224

HAMLYN LECTURERS
1949 The Right Hon. Lord Denning
1950 Richard O'Sullivan, Q.C.
1951

1952

F . H. Lawson, D.C.L.

A. L. Goodhart, K.B.E., Q . C , F.B.A.

1953 Sir Carleton Kemp Allen,

Q . C , F.B.A.

1954 C. J. Hamson, M.A., LL.M.
1955 Glanville Williams, LL.D.
1956 The Hon. Sir Patrick Devlin
1957 The Right Hon. Lord MacDermott
1958 Sir David Hughes Parry,
1959

Q . C , M.A., LL.D., D.C.L.

C. H. S. Fifoot, M.A., F.B.A.

1960 M. C. Setalvad, Padma Vibhufhan

VI

THE HAMLYN TRUST
THE Hamlyn Trust came into existence under the
will of the late Miss Emma Warburton Hamlyn, of
Torquay, who died in 1941, aged eighty. She came
of an old and well-known Devon family. Her father,
William Bussell Hamlyn, practised in Torquay as a
solicitor for many years. She was a woman of
dominant character, intelligent and cultured, well
versed in literature, music and art, and...