History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAP. Y.] A CODE WANTED. 245

Charter of 1824 constituted the late Supreme Court, the Parsis of the Mofussil were under a different system of substantive law from that of the Presideney town, and the adjudicating tribunals were guided by the usages and customs then considered binding upon the community in conformity with the provisions of Regulation 4 of 1827, by which it was enacted: “that in the absence of Acts of Parliament and Reeulations of Government applicable to any case the usage of the country in which the suit arose, or if none such appears the law of the defendant shall govern the decision, and that when in any matter depending on the peculiarities of any other law (except the Hindu or Mahomedan) or on a rule or usage of a sect or caste, a doubt arises regarding such law, rule, or usage, the Court shall ascertain the same by examining persons versed in such law, or the heads of such sect or caste or other well-informed persons.”

The law applicable to the Parsis of the Mofussil was therefore ascertained and administered in the mode thus indicated. The disadvantages of this method of administering the law were its uncertainty, its consequent tendency to encourage litigation, and the inconvenience and delay arising from having to ascertain the law in each case as well as to apply it.

In the Recorder’s Court of Bombay, however, the

law appears for some time to have been administered