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144
STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SŪTRA
[Ch. III
custom governing the state and the people from ancient times), Atthakulaka (a judicial bench consisting of judges presenting eight castes or tribes), Senapati and Uparājā.1
Judicial Procedure
In criminal cases a systematic long judicial procedure was followed by the judges for ascertaining the seriousness of crime committed by any citizen and delivering the final judgement according to the laws of the state laid down in the Pavenipotthaka (a law book).
A citizen charged with an act of crime was first to be produced before the Ganarajas who, in their turn, handed him over to the Viniccaya-Mahamattas for ascertaining whether he was guilty or innocent after proper investigation in the case.
If this court of Viniccaya Mahamattas found him innocent, it released him immediately. If he was found guilty, his case was forwarded to the court of Appeal presided over by the Voharikas without awarding any punishment to him. If this court also considered him innocent, he was acquitted of the charge, but if he was proved guilty, he was made over to the High Court of Suttadharas for further trial. In this manner his case was forwarded to the courts of Atthakulaka, Senapati, and Uparājā respectively till it was transferred to the Supreme court presided over by the king, the highest judicial authority in the
state.
The king acquitted the accused if there was no sufficient proof of his crime; otherwise he awarded the just punishment to the culprit according to the law of the Paveni-potthaka.
This account of the judicial procedure in criminal case, given in the Atthakatha is in aggrement with that of the republican judicial system embodied in the Sanskrit texts.
It is laid down in the Mahābhārata that in a republic criminal justice should quickly be administered by men learned
1 Athakatha, 118. 2 Turnour-J. A. S. B. VII, pp. 993-94. The Book of law and precedents.
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