Cornwallis Code 1793
Topic: Europeans in India and the Rise of Company Rule · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Cornwallis Code was a set of rules (regulations) issued in Bengal in 1793 under Lord Cornwallis. It separated tax collection from judging cases. The Collector, the district official who collected land revenue, lost his powers as a judge. The code set up a ladder of courts and made Company officials answerable in court for what they did in office.
Example
After 1793, each district in Bengal got a district judge, separate from the Collector. Appeals went up to provincial courts of appeal and then to the Sadar Diwani Adalat in Calcutta, the highest civil court. Indians were largely kept out of the higher posts in this system.
Don't confuse with
- Permanent Settlement 1793: it came in the same year under the same Governor-General. It fixed land revenue forever with the zamindars (landlords). The Cornwallis Code dealt with courts and officials, not land tax.
Related concepts
- Charles Metcalfe
- Warren Hastings
- Regulating Act 1773
- Supreme Court at Calcutta 1774
- Pitt's India Act 1784
- Impeachment of Warren Hastings
- Charter Act 1793
- Covenanted civil service
- Fort William College
- Haileybury College