10 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
such orders and directions as they shall, from time to time, receive from the Board, touching the civil or military government and revenues of the British territorial possessions in the East Indies.”
“Whenever the Court of Directors neglect to transmit to the Board their intended despatches on any subject, within fourteen days after requisition is made, it is lawful for the Board to prepare and send to the Directors (without waiting for the receipt of the copies of despatches intended to be sent by the said Court of Directors, as aforesaid), any orders or instructions to any of the governments or presidencies aforesaid, concerning the civil or military government of the British territories and possessions in the East Indies : and the Directors are required to transmit despatches, in the usual form (pursuant to the tenor of the said orders and instructions to be transmitted to them), to the respective governments and presidencies in India, unless on any representation made by the Directors to the Board, touching such orders or instructions, the Board shall direct any alteration to be made in the same, which directions the Court of Directors are bound to conform to.”
The Board of Control was sub-divided into six departments to answer its functions : (1) Accounts, (2) Revenue,
(3) Judicial, (4) Military, (5) Secret and Political, (6) Foreign and Public.
The mode of local administration in India was as follows :—
The country was divided into three presidencies namely, Bengal, Madras and Bombay, the seat of government being respectively at Fort William, Fort St. George, and Bombay itself.
In the beginning the Supreme Local Administration of India was distributed among these three governments, each one enjoying coordinate status. With a view to centralization, the Supreme Local Administration of India was vested in the Governor of Fort William in Bengal, making the other two Governors subordinate to that of Bengal who was made the Governor-General of India.