Berar Laws Act, 1941

·  Adapted by Adaptation of Laws Order, 1950.

2. Since the commencement of Part III of the Government of India Act, 1935 on the 1st April 1937, Berar and the Central Provinces have been deemed to be one Governor's Province, and an Act passed after that date and expressed to extend to the whole of British India does extend proprio vigore to Berar.

3. The primary object of the present Bill is to assimilate the position of Central Acts passed before the 1st day of April, 1937, to that of those passed after that date and automatically in force in Berar, that is to say, by means of one comprehensive enactment to extend to and make operative proprio vigore in Berar Central Acts passed before the commencement of Part III of the Government of India Act, 1935, while simultaneously nullifying the orders under the Foreign Jurisdiction Order in Council by virtue of which those Acts are operative in Berar. It is possible, now that the legislative competence of the Central Legislature is confined to matters enumerated in List I and List III of the Seventh Schedule to the Government of India Act, 1935, to achieve the result aimed at only in part by legislation in the Central legislature. So far as the Central Legislature is incompetent to achieve the result completely, because the subject-matter of the Act to be extended is included in List II. It is anticipated that this Central legislation will be supplemented by Provincial legislation, and that the Central Act and the Provincial Act will come into operation simultaneously, each thus completing what the other left incomplete. Accordingly the Acts to be extended to Berar are grouped in two separate Schedules, Schedules I and II, according as their subject-matter is relatable solely to List I and List III or only partly to those Lists and partly to List II.

4. In addition to Central Acts the provisions of which are already applicable to Berar by virtue of orders under the Foreign Jurisdiction Order in Council, Schedules I and II also contain a few Acts which it seems advisable to take the opportunity afforded by the Bill to extend to Berar. 5. One Act, the Indian Cotton Cess Act, 1923, which was made operative proprio vigore in Berar by the Government of India (Adaptation of Indian Laws) Order, 1937, is also still operative by virtue of an order under the Foreign Jurisdiction Order in Council. This Act has received special treatment in Cl. 3 of the present Bill.

6. Two Acts, the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, and the Indian Limitation Act 1908. require small modifica lions when operative in Berar owing to the fact that a special law, the Berar Small Cause Courts Law, 1905, takes the place of the Provincial Small Cause Courts Act, 1887, in Berar. These modifications have been effected in the Third Schedule to the Bill. The Fourth Schedule contains a list of Acts in regard to which doubts might arise whether they are or not still operative in Berar. They were at one time applied to Berar, and on the repeal or expiry of the Acts in British India no overt action was taken to cancel the notifications by which their provisions were applied to Berar, - Gazette of India, 1940, Part V, page 247.