PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
பட்
Reference :-
C.O.
885
12 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
MY LORD,
No. 242.
(CYPRUS.)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
We were honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Mr. Wingfield's
Temple, 4th January 1881. letter of 21st December last, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to us the accompanying copy of a despatch and its enclosures from Her Majesty's High Commissioner in Cyprus respecting the steps which he had taken for bringing to justice the Cadi or President of the Daavi Court, in Paffo or Baffo, who had been guilty of corruption.
That it was not quite clear from Sir R. Biddulph's despatch whether the offence was exclusively cognisable under Turkish Law by the Administrative Council, a partly elective body having no other legal member than the inculpated Cadi himself, or whether it might have been tried either by that body or the Temyiz Court or Court of Appeal at Nicosia; but that Sir R. Biddulph appeared to have thought either of those tribunals unfit to try the case, and the Legislative Council not being in session he resorted to the special power of legislation given to the High Commissioner by the 18th section of Her Majesty's Order in Council of the 14th September 1878, to create by Ordinance a special tribunal with power to deal with the charge against the Cadi, and with the same powers to acquit him or award him such punishment as the law allowed, or as to the members of the tribunal might seem just, as were possessed by any court competent to hear the said charge or any charges of a like nature.
That a copy of the Order in Council of 14th September 1878 was enclosed, and it would be observed that it was a peculiarity of Ordinances enacted by the High Com- missioner under section 18 that they had the force of law for not more than the space of six months, which in that case would be six months from the 23rd July 1880. That the tribunal met and decided the case within the six months in question, but that they assigned to the Cadi a term of imprisonment which would last beyond the space of six months from the date of the promulgation, though (as might be assumed for the purposes of this case) not in excess of what was allowed by law to be inflicted by an ordinary court of competent jurisdiction for the offences of which the Cadi was adjudged guilty. That in that state of facts, your Lordship desired our opinion on the question whether the Cadi could be detained under the sentence imposed by the special tribunal after the expiration of the period during which the Ordinance which created the tribunal remained in force.
In obedience to your Lordship's commands we have the honour to
Report
That we have considerable doubt whether the powers vested in the High Commis- sioner by section 18 of the Order in Council of 14th September 1878 justify the course taken by Sir R. Biddulph.
That section appears to us to apply to cases of sudden emergency (such as those arising from outbreak or revolt), when it is impossible to await the action of the Legis- lative Council, and does not, we think, entitle the High Commissioner to remedy inconvenience in the administration of justice by the creation of a court not recognised by the Order in Council (see s. 23.) or by the Ordinances.
The term that the special Ordinance is to come to an end at the termination of six months shows that it was not intended to apply to the creation of a court and the execution and maintenance of its sentence for an indefinite period.
If Sir R. Biddulph's view be correct, he could at any time create a court and remove the administration of justice from the ordinary tribunal of the island.
We do not say that circumstances may not arise which might justify such a course being taken as for instance in case of revolt, trial by a special court might be directed --but the circumstances must be grave and exceptional to justify such an Ordinance, and we see nothing in the facts of the case submitted to us which necessitated the course which has been pursued.
▲ 19916-226. 95,-12/84.