MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 699
Constitutional Law is undoubtedly part of Public Law and as far as it is so it must discuss the rights of the State against the subjects and the rights of the subjects against the State. But Constitutional Law include more than this. It must include the study of the organization of the state for the State is an artificial person which claims the right to punish, to possess property, to make contracts and to regulate its rights and duties as between itself and the subjects and also as between the subjects themselves. It is necessary to inquire how this artificial person is constituted. The study of the Constitutional Law therefore must include the study of three matters: (1) The organization of the State, (2) The rights of the State against the subjects and (3) The rights of the subjects against the State. It is this view of the limits and scope of the Constitutional Law that I propose to follow in these lectures on the Government of India Act and it is the view adopted by Prof. Anson in his Study of the English Constitution.
There is another question which is bound to crop up and which has better be disposed of at the outset. Is the treatment of the subject to be historical or to be descriptive ? Some history cannot be avoided in the study of the Government of India Act. The Government of India Act says that all remedies that were available against the East India Company shall continue to be available against the Secretary of State. The Government of India Act also says that His Majesty may establish High Courts by Letters Patent. The Letters Patent say that the High Court shall exercise all the powers of the Supreme Court which they superseded. Many other Sections of similar character in the Government of India Act could be referred to. But the two mentioned are sufficient to illustrate that history cannot be avoided. For, in dealing with the Constitution of India, to understand the remedies available against the Secretary of State one must inquire what were the remedies open to a subject against the East India Company. Nor can one understand the powers of the High Court until one enquires what were the powers with which the Supreme Court was invested. Although some history would be necessary, there can be no justification in a study of the Constitutional Law as it operates today