Charter of 1600:

The history of the legal system in British India opens with the establishment of the East India Company. The East India Company was incorporated in England by the Crown’s Charter of 1600. The Company was given exclusive trading rights in Asia (including India), Africa and America. No British subject could carry on trade within these areas without the license granted by the company.

The provisions of the Charter of 1600 were only in connection with the trade and were not intended for acquisition of dominion in India. The Charter authorized the General Court to make bye-laws, ordinances, etc. for the good governance of the Company and its servants and also for the better advancement of trade and traffic. The Charter authorized it to punish the violations of these laws and ordinances by fine or imprisonment. However, the laws and punishments were to be reasonable and not contrary to the laws, statutes or customs of England. Thus, the Charter of 1600 conferred on the Company the power of minor legislation with the object to enable the Company to enable it to regulate its own business and maintain discipline amongst its servants. The Charter did not intend to confer on the Company a power to legislate for and govern some territory. The Charter did not empower the Company to decide the cases of capital offences and to prescribe death sentence. The laws made by the Company in 1621 dealt with the management of its meetings and its officers in England and the administrative arrangements in east etc., and, thus, they clearly indicate the restricted character of the legislative power of the Company. However, the legislative power conferred on the company by the Charter of 1600 is of historic importance as it is “the gem out of which the Anglo Indian Codes were ultimately developed.”

At the inception of the East India Company, since its object was commercial, the Charter of 1600 conferred only those powers which were necessary to regulate its business and maintain discipline amongst its servants, but when its object became political as well and it acquired territories in India, it needed the powers necessary for the maintenance of the territory and the British Crown co-operated with it and conferred on it more and more powers for this purpose.

Charter of 1661:

In the reign of Charles II, the Company entered into a period of unprecedented prosperity. On 3 rd April, 1661, Charles II granted a new Charter to the Company. Besides extending the privileges of the Company on new territorial lines, the Charter reorganized its structure.