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

CHAP. V.] THE MATRIMONIAL COURT. 273

the reasons which induced the select committee of the Legislative Council to substitute the matrimonial courts for the Panchayet. The Honourable Mr. Anderson, in moving that the committee’s report be taken into consideration, said :—

“The principal alteration in the Bill is the substitution of Parsi matrimonial courts for Panchayets. With reference to Panchayets I would wish to offer a very brief explanation. The term taken by the Parsis from the Hindus around them has not been very happily chosen, and it does not convey the idea of the kind of tribunal which it was in contemplation to establish. That tribunal was one of which the members were to be chosen by the Parsis themselves, and of which the members were men in whom the Parsis had confidence. But it was never intended that the rude ‘under the tree’ mode of investigation which the idea of a Panchayet suggests should be adopted. But I freely admit that the Parsi matrimonial courts will constitute far more efficient tribunals than the Panchayets, and that they will fulfil all the conditions which the Legislature has a right to impose on an institution which it invests with graye responsibilities. It is proposed, then, to establish Parsi chief matrimonial courts in the Presidency towns of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, and Parsi district matrimonial courts in such places as the discretion of the Governor-General in Council and the local Governments may suggest. A district under the Act may include more than one ordinary judicial district; and such places in which, on account of the fewness of the Parsi inhabitants, the local Governments shall not deem it necessary to establish matrimonial courts, are to be regarded as under the jurisdiction of the chief matrimonial courts in the Presidency towns. The matrimonial courts in Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay are to be presided over by the Chief Justice, or other judge of Her Majesty’s High Court of Judicature in those towns, aided by eleven delegates, and the district matrimonial courts by a district judge aided by seven delegates.

“The delegates are to be Parsis, appointed by the local

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