IAS Prelims Preparation 2018
Day # 39 (May 1, 2017)
Topics of the day: Indian Polity –
Regulating act of 1773 and Pitt’s India Act of 1784
Regulating Act of 1773
This
act is of great constitutional importance as
(a)
it was the first step taken by the British Government to control and
regulate
the affairs of the East India Company in India;
(b)
it recognised, for the first time, the political and administrative
functions
of the Company; and
(c)
it laid the foundations of central administration in India.
Features of the Act
1.
It designated the Governor of Bengal as the ‘Governor-General of
Bengal’
and created an Executive Council of four members to assist him.
The
first such Governor-General was Lord Warren Hastings.
2.
It made the governors of Bombay and Madras presidencies
subordinate
to the governor- general of Bengal, unlike earlier, when the
three
presidencies were independent of one another.
3.
It provided for the establishment of a Supreme Court at Calcutta
(1774)
comprising one chief justice and three other judges.
4.
It prohibited the servants of the Company from engaging in any
private
trade or accepting presents or bribes from the ‘natives’.
5.
It strengthened the control of the British Government over the
Company
by requiring the Court of Directors (governing body of the
Company)
to report on its revenue, civil, and military affairs in India.
Pitt’s India Act of 1784
In
a bid to rectify the defects of the Regulating Act of 1773, the British
Parliament
passed the Amending Act of 1781, also known as the Act of
Settlement.
The
next important act was the Pitt’s India Act of 1784.
Features of the Act
1.
It distinguished between the commercial and political functions of the
Company.
2.
It allowed the Court of Directors to manage the commercial affairs but
created
a new body called Board of Control to manage the political
affairs.
Thus, it established a system of double government.
3.
It empowered the Board of Control to supervise and direct all
operations
of the civil and military government or revenues of the
British
possessions in India.
Thus,
the act was significant for two reasons:
first,
the Company’s territories in India were for the first time called the
‘British
possessions in India’; and
second,
the British Government was given the supreme control over
Company’s affairs
and its administration in India.