(Received the assent of the Governor General on the 19th January 1875)
An Act to diminish the multitude and improve the quality of Law Reports, and to extend the area of their authority.
PREAMBLE
Preamble. Whereas it is expedient to diminish the multitude and expense of the law reports published in British India, and to improve their quality, and to extend the local limits of the authority of properly reported decisions of the High Courts of Judicature established under the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth of Victoria, cap. 104:
And whereas with a view to furthering these objects, the Governor General in Council proposes to authorize the publication of reports of cases decided by the said High Courts, to be called the Indian Authorized Law Reports; It is hereby enacted as follows:
This Act may be called The Indian Law Reports Act, 1875:
Local extent. It extends to the whole of British India;
Commencement. And it shall come into force on such day as the Governor General in Council notifies in this behalf in the Gazette of India.
Every judgment delivered on or after such day by any of the said High Courts (whether by a Judge sitting alone, or by a Division Court, or by a Full Bench) and reported in the said Indian Authorized Law Reports, shall have the same authority in all subordinate Courts beyond the limits of the appellate jurisdiction of such High Court as, independently of this Act, it would have within such limits.
No Court shall be bound to hear cited, or shall receive or treat as an authority binding on it, the report of any case decided by any of the said High Courts on or after the said day, other than a report published under the authority of the Governor General in Council.
Save as provided by section two, nothing herein contained shall be construed to give to any judicial decision any further or other authority than it would have had if this Act had not been passed.