Legal System In India

Hanshika Manku, IILM University, Gurugram

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on the development of the Indian legal system. In the last hundred years, the Indian legal system has evolved greatly from the civilisations to the Gupta and Mauryan empires to the emergence and settlement of Mughals in India. This paper will primarily focus on the Legal systems and a shift in the legal and judicial system in India during the medieval period and the current legal system. The difference in the administrative procedures of the Mauryan, Gupta and Mughal empires are also evident. The judiciary was far more developed under the Guptas than it had been in the past. The Mauryans had two separate kinds of courts: Kantakasodhana dealt with criminal cases, while Dharmastheya dealt with civil ones. Several courts were established under the Mughal empire to address various sorts of matters. In contrast to Hindu law, the Islamic criminal code did not see all crimes as injuries to the state. The three categories into which the offences fell were crimes against God, crimes against the State, and crimes against private individuals. India still has a hybrid legal system that mixes civil, common law and customary, Islamic ethics or religious law within the framework left over from the colonial era. Many laws originally passed by the British are still in effect today, albeit with minor modifications.