54 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
It is said that the Supreme Courts are Courts of King’s Bench, with all the authority of the King’s Bench. In Wales the jurisdiction to the Court of Great Sessions is given by the 34th and 35th of Henry VIII, c. 28, nearly in the same words. They have been introduced too into the charters of the Courts of almost all his Majesty’s colonies, and are, indeed, a general formula, of which the most extensive import must be qualified by the specific provision by which it is accompanied.
It is worth while to observe also, that a clause (sec. 4) of a similar description is to be found in the charter given to the Supreme Court at Fort William (Morley’s Dig. ii., P.
551); and that clause is taken from a clause in the charter of the 26th Geo. II. page 446, of the charters of the Company, and which ordains directs, establishes and appoints, that “the Governor or President and Council of Fort William in Bengal for the time being, shall be Justices of Peace, and have power to act as Justices of Peace, and as Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer and general Gaol Delivery; and that they, or any three or more of them (whereof the Governor or President, or in his absence the senior of the Council then residing at Fort William aforesaid, to be one) shall and may hold sessions of the peace, and of Oyer and Terminer and Gaol Delivery respectively, in and for the said town or factory of Calcutta, at Fort William in Bengal, and other the factories subordinate thereto, and do all such other acts as Justices of Peace and Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer and Gaol Delivery, with such powers, jurisdictions, and authorities, and under such regulations and restrictions, as are herein before given, granted, limited, and appointed, concerning Justices of Peace and Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer and Gaol Delivery for the said town of Madraspatnam.” The clause respecting Madras is found at page 430, and is in these words: “ We do give and grant unto the said Company and their successors and do by these presents will, ordain, establish, and appoint, that the Governor or President and Council of Fort Saint George aforesaid for the time being, shall be Justices of Peace and have power to act as Justices of Peace in and for the said town of Madraspatnam, and in and for Fort Saint George, Fort Saint David, Vizapatam, the factories on the coast of Sumatra, and all other the factories