Page:Hyderabad in 1890 and 1891; comprising all the letters on Hyderabad affairs written to the Madras Hindu by its Hyderabad correspondent during 1890 and 1891 (IA hyderabadin1890100bangrich).pdf/28

Page 20 have been gone through, have been so flagrantly irregular in character as to call forth a leader-oven at the risk of social ostracism from the Editor of the Deccan Times, severely ani- madverting on the conduct of the Judge, as well as to be stigma- tised by the Government itself as "a grave error." (Vide resolution of Government, published in the Deccan Times of the 1st Instant over the signature of the Nawab Fateh Nawaz Jung Bahadur wherein it is stated that the Minister is of opinion that the court has committed a grave error in the matter, etc). Before saying anything about the first case, I should like to supplement briefly the remarks in the Decean Time's leader in re the second one. Being asked to enlarge Sriram Pandit, one of the accused in this case, on bail, by his counsel, Mr. Nelson, the Judge is reported to have said: "I am not inclined to grant your appli- cation, as considering the evidence before me which I am not at present prepared to disclose, I deem it right to refuse the application." Wherefrom did the Judge receive "the evidence before me which I am not at present prepared to disclose"? Was he justified in receiving sub rosa evidence against accused? And these lead us to the question: Is it after all true that these are all trumped-up cases, the decisions whereof had been written out, or at all events thought out before any proceedings actually began? Those that are learned in the law ought to be able to say whether after such an admission as that made in open Court with reference to Mr. Nelson's application for hailing Sriram Pandit ont, the Judge can be held competent to try the case. But to us, laymen, it seems masquerading with justice to allow to sit in judgment over any one, a man, a Judge though he be of the High Court, who is liable not only to receive im- pressions outside the pale of the Court but to hold a sort of a consultation with the prosecution. This conduct of the Judge lends colour to the ugly rumours afloat in the City to the effect that his judgment in the first case-a special translation of which appears in the Deccan Standard, the mouthpiece of the Govern- ment, not so much it would seem, to throw any light on the subject as to propagate wanton libels and fictions for the de-