Ponniyin Selvan Varalaatru Peravai

I cannot find apt words to thank sps sir for his kind introduction -
that i got to spend an evening with a legend..Dr. Nagaswamy. during
the course of the evening he mentioned about this particular article
of his.....

http://tamilartsacademy.com/journals/volume1/articles/judges_tenure.h
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LIMITATIONS OF JUDGES' TENURE
AN ANCIENT EXAMPLE
Dr. R. Nagaswamy
Recently some of the Judges of the High court were transferred from
one place to another. This attracted the attention of the public
from different angles. The transfers were effected, according to the
authorities, to maintain the highest standards of the judiciary and
improve its efficiency. Others questioned this stand and imputed
motive. Even one of the judges expressed his disappointment over the
transfers. In this connection an ancient lithic (epigraphic) record
dated over one thousand years ago, regarding limitation of service
tenure of the Judges, would come as a revelation to those interested
in the history of Ancient Indian Judiciary.

The record is dated 930 CE, in the reign of the Chola King
Parantaka, and is found on a ceiling slab of the Bhaktavatsala
temple of Thiruninravur near Madras, Tamilnadu. It is engraved in
Tamil letters and relates to the constitution of Judiciary and the
limitation of their service.

Before the inscription is studied, it is necessary to note that the
Chola emperors, aimed at superlative efficiency in all walks of
public administration and did achieve splendid standards, which even
modern administrators would envy. The famous Uttaramerur
inscription, relating to the qualifications, dis-qualifications, and
process of election to the village assembly is an instant, well-
known. Two important records from Tamilnad, give a vivid picture of
the constitution of judiciary in ancient times. One is an 8th cent.
record that comes from the Pandya country and the other 10th cent.
record, from a place near Madras, mentioned above.

The judiciary was by and large in the hands of elected village
elders, and only in exceptional cases went to the territorial
assemblies or ultimately to the King's council. The village courts
served as the main back bone of judicial system in ancient India.
Called the Panchayat system, in modern times, the village judiciary
is mostly misunderstood, as the collective decision of the elders,
without the application of any legal procedures known to present
times. Most historians held that the legal-judicial system came to
be introduced and learned only after the advent of European rule in
India. The 8th cent. record from Pandyan country, disproves this
assumption emphatically. This record comes from Manur, in
Tirunelveli district, and is virtually a written constitution of the
village, regarding the election of judges to the village court. The
entire village assembly met and drafted the constitution for
selecting Judges.

The first qualification prescribed was that a person to be elected
as a judge should be a master of at least one legal treatise. The
legal treatises are known as dharma sastras and there were many
schools of dharma sastras like Manu, Yajnavalkya, Brhaspati,
Parasara and others. The one who was to be elected as a Judge,
should be a master of at the least one dharma sastra, which means
that the village courts were presided over by legal experts and not
by casual elders, as is commonly understood. There were strict legal
procedures to be adopted, before the case is taken to the village
courts.

The Manur record also specifies that the person to be elected to the
court should be one, known for his sterling conduct (suvrittaray
iruppar). The village assembly should accept the person to be of
good conduct to be elected. Since this village was a Brahmin
settlement, it further prescribed that a person to be elected should
be a master of one Veda and one Brahmana text. It is not mere
knowledge, that was wanted, but he should have appeared for an
examination in one Veda and one brahmana, and passed the test. There
are other aspects mentioned in the record with which we are not
concerned here. Thus the above record, stipulates, virtuous conduct,
a pass in the stipulated examination and mastery of one law book as
basic requirements for being elected to the court. This record does
not, however, stipulate the duration for which he can serve or if he
has served once the interval that was required for re-election.

This gap is filled up by the Thiruninravur record of 10th cent.
mentioned earlier. It mainly addresses itself to the interval that
was obsolutely needed to serve in the same court. The Thiruninravur
record is also a written constitution of the village judiciary
drafted by the whole village assembly, which met for the purpose in
930 CE is clear. That the village judiciary and administrative
committees were elected to serve for one term.

Once the elected judges have served for one term, they should not be
elected for another five years to serve not only as judges but also
in other administrative committees. The restriction of five year
interval was reduced to two years in the case of relatives like
fathers,brothers or sons of those who had served once.

It was thus made obligatory on the part of the judges not to serve
two terms consiquently in the same court within an interval of five
years, once he has served in the court. His close relatives could
not also aspire to become Judges within two years of his service.

It is pertinent to recall the qualification stipulated for a Judge
of the village court; a pass in the prescribed examination, mastery
of a legal text and above all noble conduct. The dharma sastras
insist on the sanctity of judicial pronouncement, failing which, the
judge was liable for punishment and would also incur a sin and his
emancipation was in danger. Inspite of such strict standards, like
upright judgements, good conduct, and high qualifications, his
tenure was limited, and that he could not serve in the same court
for five years subsiquently.

This indicates the height to which the standards of judicial
administration was taken in the Chola period in the l0th and llth
cent. C.E.

Whether this system could be applied in modern times is not the
concern of this article. The Standards are different now. But it
does focus attention on the history of ancient Indian Judiciary,
often labelled Pancayat system which is brushed aside as a
collective conventional decision, rather than based on written
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