Report No. 77

3.4. Judicial procedure in ancient India.-

We do not propose to go into details of ancient Indian judicial procedure. However, it would be appropriate to state that the rules of procedure and evidence in ancient India were sophisticated enough. In broad outlines there is considerable similarity between the system then in vogue and the system now in force. Let us mention some of the interesting rules of the ancient system.

A civil judicial proceeding was commenced ordinarily by filing a plaint before a competent authority. A plaint, it was provided,1 must be brief in words, unambiguous, free from confusion,2 devoid of improper arguments and capable of meeting opposite arguments.

1. Brihaspati, cited by M.K. Sharan Court Procedure in Ancient India, (1978), p. 57 (300 A.D.-500 A.D.).

2. Cf. Kane History of the Dharmasastra, (1972), Vol. 3, p. 299 (words containing no coherent sense).