Page images
PDF
EPUB

fied to serve on any grand jury, or on any jury for the trial of a person who does profess that religion.

(4) These persons are exempted from the liability to serve on juries; namely, the Governor-general and all peers; the members of council, and the secretaries and deputy secretaries of the government; the judges and officers of the court of Sudder Adawlut and the Calcutta Provincial Court of Appeal and Circuit; the senior members and the principal secretaries to the Boards of Trade, Revenue, and Customs, and of the Sudder Special Commission; the accountant-general and the sub-treasurer for the time being, and the secretary to the Bank of Bengal; all officers of the army, navy, or marine of his Majesty or the Honourable Company; all persons employed in the pilot service of the Honourable Company; all clergymen, and all such dissenting ministers as are actually attached to or employed in any public place of religious worship, and who follow no other secular employment but that of teaching; all brahmins, moollahs, and other Hindoos and Mahometans actually officiating as priests in their respective religions; all physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries, actually practising as such; all domestic servants, and all persons above sixty years of are afflicted with any great infirmity of body or mind.

age, or who

(5) AH covenanted servants of the Honourable Company's civil service; all persons who according to the usage of England are entitled to the style and addition of esquire, or of any higher degree, or who shall be described in the lists hereinafter mentioned as merchants or bankers; all persons whose claims to the title of rajah, or to have about them any insignia of equivalent rank, have been formally acknowledged by the government, or whose rank or superiority of caste, according to the usage of their tribe or religion, would prevent them from sitting on common juries, or whose property or interest in lands, tenements, or goods would be worth two hundred thousand rupees after the payment of their just debts, shall be exempted from serving on any other than special or grand juries; provided always, that if any person who is entitled to this exemption shall be willing to waive the same, and to serve on common juries, an entry to that effect shall be made in a separate column upon the lists and book hereinafter mentioned, and the party shall be deemed to be qualified and liable to serve both on special and on common juries.

(6) In the months of January and February in every year, the sheriff and clerk of the crown shall, by all lawful means, make inquiry throughout the town of Calcutta, and shall severally prepare, to the best of their ability, knowledge, information, and belief, full and accurate lists, in alphabetical order, of all persons who are qualified and liable as aforesaid to serve on juries; and such lists, according to the form of the schedule annexed to these rules, shall contain in separate columns opposite to each person's name, his proper style, addition, or calling, his place of residence, the country of his birth, his religious profession, and his qualification to serve on juries, and the ground of

[blocks in formation]

his privilege, if any, to serve on grand or special juries only; provided always, that in stating the religious profession of any person, it shall be sufficient to say Christian, Mahometan, Hindu, or the like, without specifying the particular church or sect of the party.

(7) The sheriff and the clerk of the crown on the first day of March, unless it happen on a Sunday, and then on the following day, shall deliver to the Supreme Court, or to the chief justice, or, in his absence, to the senior judge, their several lists so made as afore-mentioned, signed by themselves; and the same lists, after inspection by the court or judge, shall be redelivered as soon as conveniently may be to the clerk of the crown, who shall compare the two lists, and if need be, shall make further inquiry, and before the end of the month of March shall make out one fresh list in alphabetical order, and in similar form to the two first, which fresh list he shall sign and attest with his hand and seal, as a true and perfect list, according to the best of his knowledge, information, and belief, of all persons qualified to serve as jurors in the Supreme Court, and shall cause the same to be published twice in the month of April, in the government gazette, or some other newspaper published in Calcutta.

(8) The clerk of the crown on every day in the month of May in which any judge shall sit in chambers, shall attend at the court-house with the last-mentioned list, and every person whose name is improperly inserted or omitted, or who is wrongly or defectively described, may apply, or in case of any such person neglecting or refusing to comply, the clerk of the crown may apply to the sitting judge, who either on the oath of the party himself, or of the clerk of the crown, or on examination of witnesses, may order the list to be corrected by the clerk of the crown; and in case of any such correction having been made, the list shall be recopied and finally perfected and attested by the clerk of the crown, and once more published in the Government Gazette, or some other paper, in the first fortnight of the month of June.

(9) The clerk of the crown shall place the said last-mentioned list amongst the records of the Supreme Court, and shall cause the same to be fairly and truly copied in the same form in a book, and before the end of the month of June shall deliver the said book to the sheriff, who on quitting his office shall deliver it to the succeeding sheriff'; and excepting such alterations as at any time, upon motion in open court, may be directed by the court to be made in it, the said book, so prepared in each year as aforesaid, shall, from the 1st of July in the same year, for twelve months next ensuing, be deemed and taken to be a true list of all persons qualified and liable to serve on juries in the Supreme Court, and the same persons shall be summoned to serve as jurors, and no other; and the Supreme Court, by virtue of its authority under the IV. XIX. and XXXIX. clauses of the letterspatent of the 26th March 1774, and according to the exigence of the aforementioned act of the seventh year of the reign of his present

Majesty,

Majesty, intituled, "an Act to regulate the Appointment of Juries in "the East-Indies," and with a reference to the provisions of another act passed in the sixth year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled," an Act for consolidating and amending the Laws relative to "Jurors and Juries," requires of all justices of the peace, and constables and other officers employed in the conservation of the peace, and of all persons having in their keeping or possession any public books of assessment or registry, that for the purpose of enabling the sheriff and clerk of the crown to form and perfect the aforementioned lists, they be aiding and assisting unto them.

(10) The sheriff, out of the names contained in the book aforementioned, shall summon for each sessions thirty-six of those who are qualified and liable to serve on grand juries, and sixty of those who are qualified and liable to serve on petit juries, and every summons shall be served one week at least before the first day of the sessions at which the party summoned is to attend : and of each of the panels returned by the sheriff, one-half at least must be of that class of persons who have heretofore been designated in the statutes relating to India by the term "British subject," and in like manner onehalf of the jury shall in every case consist of such British subjects.

(11) Upon motion made on behalf of the king or of any prosecutor or defendant after issue has been joined upon any indictment or information for any misdemeanor, the court, if the case shall appear to require it, will order a special jury to be struck before the clerk of the crown, and for this purpose the sheriff or under sheriff shall, within ten days after the delivery of the juries book for the current year, to either of them, take from such book the names of all men who shall be described therein as liable to serve on grand or special jurors only, and shall cause the names of all such persons to be fairly and truly copied out in alphabetical order, together with their respective places of abode and additions, in a separate list to be subjoined to the jurors book, which list shall be called "the Special Jurors "List," and shall prefix to every name in such list its proper number, beginning the numbers from the first name, and continuing them in a regular arithmetical series down to the last name; and shall cause the said several numbers to be written upon distinct pieces of parchment or card, being all, as nearly as may be, of equal size; and after all the said numbers shall have been so written, shall put the same together in a separate drawer or box, and shall there safely keep the same; and whenever the court shall order a special jury to be struck, the clerk of the crown shall appoint a time and place for the nomination of such special jury, and a copy of the rule of the court shall be served on the under sheriff, and also on all the parties on whom it has been usual to serve the same in England; and the clerk of the crown, at the time and place appointed, being attended by the under sheriff or his agent, who are hereby respectively required to bring with them the jurors book and such special jurors list, and all the numbers so

written

written on distinct pieces of parchment or card as aforesaid, in the presence of all the parties, and of their attornies (if they respectively choose to attend, or if the said parties or their attornies, all or any of them, do not attend, then in their absence), put all the said numbers into a box, to be by him provided for that purpose, and after having shaken them together shall draw out of the said box forty-eight of the said numbers, one after another, and shall, as each number is drawn, refer to the corresponding number in the special jurors list, and read aloud the name designated by such number; and if at the time of so reading any name, either party or his attorney shall object that the man whose name shall have been so referred to is in any manner incapacitated from serving on the said jury, and shall also then and there prove the same to the satisfaction of the clerk of the crown, such name shall be set aside, and the said officer shall instead thereof draw out of the said box another number, and shall in like manner refer to the corresponding number in the said list, and read aloud the name designated thereby, which name may be in like manner set aside, and other numbers and names shall in every such case be resorted to, according to the mode of proceeding described for the purpose of supplying names in the places of those set aside, until the whole number of forty-eight names not liable to be set aside shall be completed; and if in any case it shall so happen that the whole number of forty-eight names cannot be obtained from the special jurors list in such case the clerk of the crown shall fairly and indifferently take, according to the mode of nomination heretofore pursued in England in nominating special juries, such a number of names from the general jurors book, in addition to those already taken from the special jurors list, as shall be required to make up the full number of forty-eight names, all and every of which forty-eight names shall in such case be equally deemed and taken to be those of special jurors; and the clerk of the crown shall afterwards make out for each party a list of the forty-eight names, together with their respective place of abode and additions, and after having made out such list, shall return all the numbers so drawn out, together with all the numbers remaining undrawn, to the under sheriff or his agent, to be by such under sheriff safely and securely kept for future use; and all the subsequent proceedings for reducing the said list, and all other matters whatsoever relating to special juries, shall be conducted in the same manner as in England; and the person or party who shall apply for a special jury, shall pay such fees for striking such jury as shall be prescribed by the court.

(12) When it shall appear to the court, or to any judge thereof in vacation, that it will be proper and necessary that some of the jurors who are to try the issue in any case should have a view of the place in question, in order to their better understanding the evidence that may be given upon the trial of such issues, in every such case the court, or any judge thereof in vacation, may order a rule to be drawn up, containing the terms usual in England, and also requiring, if such court

or

or judge shall so think fit, the party applying for the view to deposit in the hands of the under sheriff a sum of money, to be named in the rule, for payment of the expenses of the view, and commanding special writs of venire facias, distringas, or habeas corpora, to issue, by which the sheriff to whom the said writs shall be directed shall be commanded to have six or more of the jurors named in such writs, or in the panels thereto annexed (who shall be mutually consented to by the parties, or if they cannot agree shall be nominated by the sheriff), at the place in question, some convenient time before the trial, who then and there shall have the place in question shown to them by two persons in the said writs named, to be appointed by the court or judge; and the sheriff shall, by a special return upon the same, certify that the view hath been had according to the command of the same, and shall specify the names of the viewers; and those men who shall have had the view, or such of them as shall appear upon the jury to try the issue, shall be first sworn, and so many only shall be added to the viewers who shall appear, as shall, after all defaulters and challenges allowed, make up a full jury of twelve.

(13) In all cases wherein the king is a party, notwithstanding it be alleged by them that sue for the king, that the jurors or some of them be not indifferent for the king, yet the inquest shall not remain untaken for that cause; but if they that sue for the king will challenge any of those jurors, they shall assign of their challenge a cause certain, and the truth of the same challenge shall be inquired of according to the usage in England, and it shall be proceeded to the taking of the same inquisitions, as it shall be found, if the challenges be true or not, after the discretion of the court; and no person arraigned for murder or felony shall be admitted to any peremptory challenge above the number of twenty.

(14) There shall be no award that any of the by-standers be sworn upon the jury in any case, except it be by consent of all the parties in the case.

(15) No verdict shall be set aside, or in any way affected, for any cause which might have been cause of challenge at the trial; nor shall any writ of attaint be prosecuted against any jury or jurors for their verdict, nor against any party who shall have judgment on such verdict; but any person who shall be guilty of the offence of embracery, and every juror who shall corruptly or wilfully consent thereto, shall be punishable as heretofore.

(16) At each sessions the clerk of the crown shall make a minute of the names of those who shall serve at such sessions, and immediately after shall give a copy of the same to the under sheriff; and no juror who has served shall be summoned again within twelve months, unless for want of other jurors.

(17) All those who shall be lawfully summoned to serve on juries, and shall wilfully neglect to attend, shall be punished as for a contempt, unless upon motion made it shall be shown to the satisfaction

of

« PreviousContinue »