60 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
writs of mandamus, certiorari, procedendo, or error, and to punish any contempt thereof, or wilful disobedience thereunto, by fine and imprisonment”. Now the question is asked, why the charter should give these particulars if they were already included in the general grant. Is this, then, the first time that in all the rolls of English Acts of Parliament an unnecessary power can be shown to have been created, or express terms to have been used, where they were superseded by clear implication, or that the figure of speech called tautology can be detected ? Unless the argument is pushed to that extent it is plainly worth nothing; and that it cannot be fairly pushed to that extent the experience of every session demonstrates.
But if this clause proves any thing it proves a great deal too much. The only writs enumerated in it are those of mandamus, certiorari, procedendo, and error. There is no mention of habeas corpus in this charter; yet it is stated on all hands that writs of habeas corpus have constantly issued; and if not, the certiorari for removing convictions and orders of Magistrates would be of little value. Why set aside the judgement against a man who has been convicted by a Justice, if the man is himself to remain in gaol, and the writ of habeas corpus cannot rescue him ?
It is admitted that within Fort William in Bengal the Supreme Court of Calcutta is authorized to issue writs of habeas corpus ; therefore within the territories of Bombay, as described in the fourth of his present Majesty (4 Geo. iv. c. 71), the same power must exist in this Supreme Court.
It is to be a court for all “the town and island of Bombay, and the limits thereof, and the factories subordinate thereto, and within the factories which now are, or hereafter may be, subject to or dependent upon; “with such powers as are given within Fort William in Bengal aforesaid, or the places subject to, or dependent upon, the Government thereof” (clause 10, Morley’s Dig. ii. p. 645).
Thus appointed, they form a Supreme Court, which is “to have such jurisdiction and authority as our Justices of our Court of King’s Bench have and may lawfully exercise within that part of Great Britain called England, as far as circumstances will admit” (clause 10). Here is a court with all the powers which the Court of