OF LAW THERE CAN BE NO LESS ACKNOWLEDGED THAN THAT HER SEAT IS THE YET ALL WITH UNIFORM CONSENT, ADMIRING HER AS JURISPRUDENTIA EST DIVINARUM ATQUE HUMANARUM RERUM NOTITIA, JUSTI 1869. Punjab Printing Company, Limited. I 869 ΤΟ COLONEL EDWARD LAKE, c. s. I., LATE FINANCIAL COMMISSIONER OF THE PUNJAB AND SOME TIME COMMISSIONER OF THE JALUNDHAR DIVISION THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF THE PERIOD DURING WHICH THE AUTHOR ENJOYED THE BENEFIT OF BEING ONE OF HIS ASSISTANTS. Dext 24 1928 PREFACE. The publication of a Collection of the Acts in force in this Province now being brought out under the auspices of the Chief Court, as well as other causes, have led me to abandon my former intention of editing the enactments which embody the Substantive Civil Law of the Punjab; and the present volume is therefore confined to the Punjab Civil Code, together with a few Acts and Regulations which relate to subjects treated of by the Code. I have taken advantage however of these narrowed limits to make the notes as complete as possible, and I believe all the published rulings of the Lahore Court, as also those of the Indian High Courts as contained in Sutherland's W. Reporter, in the Bengal Law Reports, Stokes' and Sullivan's Madras Reports, Reid's Bombay Reports, and those of the Agra High Court, with such of the Privy Council cases as are given in Sutherland's Collection, will be found under the heads to which the respective precedents refer. In those parts of the Code which treat of the law of Contract and of Wrongs I have also freely availed myself of those standard works of English law which are most in the hands of the Anglo Indian lawyer, but as the English Reports on which these works are based are not generally accessible in Indian Mofussil Stations I have for the most part omitted the references to them even when quoting the names of the cases. Bearing in mind the frequency with which Civil Officers find themselves compelled to administer justice away from head quarters, and also the scanty Law resources of most district and private libraries except in Lahore itself, I have sought, especially in every dubious or difficult point, to give the rulings illustrating it in as much detail as might be, and usually in the words of the Judges and Law-writers themselves. While however I have aimed at supplying all that is needful for immediate use, I should not have given the references to the precedents and authorities with so much prominence in the text, were it not from the hope that when leisure and opportunity allow it, the reader will form his own judgment by a reference to the original sources; specially ought this to be the case where conflicting decisions show that the construction or the application of the law is more or less difficult and obscure. Optima est lex quæ minimum relinquit arbitrio judicis, optimus judex qui minimum sibi; and if this be true universally, more on the part of so large a portion of those who have to preside in the AngloIndian Courts furnishes a ready handle of attack. That any acquisitions of legal learning or acumen on the part of Indian Judicial Officers will altogether silence these attacks is too much to hope for, but it would do what is of far greater importance to the interests of the country; it would tend to introduce certainty into the decisions of the Courts, which would then be based on the results arrived at by the thought and learning of the sages of the Law, instead of on the mere quicksands of individual opinion on what may be right and just in the isolated case under consideration. "It is my wish and my comfort," said Lord Kenyon, "to stand super antiquas vias. I cannot legislate but by my industry I can discover what my predecessors have done, and I will servilely tread in their steps." Misera est servitus, ubi jus est vagum aut incertum. And it seems one of the hopeful marks of the improvement now going on in our Indian Courts, that authority, rather than what was styled common-sense, is being more and more relied on for the solution of the questions which come before them; and if the present work at all contribute to progress in this direction I shall feel more than rewarded for the labor employed in its compilation. In conclusion, I cannot deprive myself of the pleasure of quoting the following words of Bacon-"Judges ought to remember that their office is jus dicere, and not jus dare-to interpret law and not to make law or to give law. *** Judges ought to be more learned than witty, more reverend than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things integrity is their portion and proper virtue. Cursed (saith the Law) is he that removeth the landmark.' The mislayer of a mere stone is to blame; but it is the unjust Judge that is the capital remover of landmarks, when he defineth amiss of land and property. One foul sentence doth more harm than many foul examples; for these do but corrupt the stream, the other corrupteth the fountain-so saith Solomon 'Fons turbatus et vena corrupta est justus cadens in causa sua coram adversario'." miscarriage of a letter of-in contracts of sale, 344. in a contract of sale, 343, 344. ACCOUNT BOOKS admissible as corroborative proof, 68, 69. ACCOUNTS error may be shewn in-10. ACQUIRED PROPERTY. See under PROPERTY. ACQUISITIONS proof necessary that property is separately acquired, and not joint estate, 270 -273. ACQUISITIONS. See further under PROPERTY. ACT No. XXXII of 1839, 469; ACT No. V OF 1844, (Lottery Act), Appendix, 1—111 ; ACT No. VII OF 1845, 33; ACT No. XX OF 1847, (Copyright Act), 614, 625-637; ACT No. XXI OF 1848, (Gaming Act), Appendix, IV-VI; ACT No. XVIII of 1850, 33; ACT No. XXI of 1850, 168, 170; ACT No. XIX of 1853, 50; ACT No. XVIII OF 1854, (Railway Act), Appendix, LXIV-LXV; ACT No. XXVI of 1854, Appendix, XXXII-XXXV ; ACT No. II of 1855, 43; ACT No. XI of 1855, 679, 714; ACT No. XII of 1855, 495, 520; ACT No. XIII of 1855, 495, 522; ACT No. XV OF 1856, 179-183; ACT No. XXXV OF 1858, (Management of Lunatics' Estate Act), Appendix, VII-XVI; ACT No. XL OF 1858, (Management of Minors' Estates Act), Appendix, xvI- XXXI ; ACT NO. VIII OF 1859, Sec. 14, p. 573; Secs. 34 & 35, p. 36; Sec. 73, p. 407; |