CC/CT: LET 252 | The Law of Equity(Origin and Development of Equity Law)

CT: Adv. Jalal Uddin M. Akbar | SID: ARNAB/LLB 00305037

By the middle of the 13th century the law administered in England, was in part Customary Law and Statutory Law. There were three kinds of Court in England. Such as-

1. The King’s Bench;2. The Court of Common Pleas; and3. The Exchequer

The whole common people of England filed a suit before the court of common pleas. The justice of the Court of Common Pleas judged following the Customary Law and Statutory Law. But the court did not provide proper remedy at all and it was not adequate remedy for the plaintiff or the defendant. The law did not provide relief for all inconveniences. No provisions were made for matters of natural justice. In such cases, a petition was made to the king-in-council to exercise his extraordinary judicial powers and developed of referring these petitions according custom. It was dealing with these petitions that the ‘Chancellor’ began his judicial functions and the ‘Court of Chancery’ was established besides the Court of Common Law.

The ‘Chancellor’ acted according his judicial conscience or the principle of natural justice. The principles and rules thus arising though the administration of justice in the Court of Chancery were called ‘Equity’ in contradistinction in Common Law. In this way, two courts (Common Law Court and Chancery Court) judged parallel in that time. In the 18th century Equity was composed as a legal system and up to 1873 there remained two separate systems of courts namely-

1. Common Law Court and2. Chancery Court

But in 1873 both the courts were dissolved by The Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1875 and created a new unified High Court of justice with the Chancery division- 1 of 3 divisions of the High Court succeeding the court of Chancery as an equitable body. There were two courts under The Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1875 and they were:

1. High Court and2. Court of Appeal

And the High Court had 3 divisions and they were:

1. The Chancery Division2. The King’s Bench Division and3. Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division

These courts assigned with the powers of enforcing all the rights and remedies legal as well as equitable.