Government of India Act 1915

Government of India Act 1915
Act of Parliament
Long titleAn Act to consolidate enactments relating to the Government of India.
Citation5 & 6 Geo. 5. c. 61
Dates
Royal assent29 July 1915
Commencement1 January 1916
Other legislation
Repealed byGovernment of India Act 1935
Status: Repealed

The Government of India Act 1915 (5 & 6 Geo. 5. c. 61) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which consolidated prior acts of Parliament concerning British India into a single act. It was passed in July 1915 and went into effect on 1 January 1916.[1]

The act repealed 47 prior acts of Parliament, starting with an act of 1770, and replaced them with a single act containing 135 sections and five schedules. It was introduced first to the House of Lords, where it was referred to a joint committee of Parliament chaired by Lord Loreburn. The committee removed several provisions which went beyond the simple consolidation of existing law.

Government of India (Amendment) Act 1916
Act of Parliament
Long titleAn Act to amend certain enactments relating to the government of India, and to remove doubts as to the validity of certain Orders in Council made for India.
Citation6 & 7 Geo. 5. c. 37
Dates
Royal assent23 August 1916
Commencement1 September 1916
Other legislation
Repealed byStatute Law (Repeals) Act 1993
Status: Repealed

A supplemental act, mostly technical in nature and including several of the provisions struck out of the consolidation act, was introduced and passed in 1916, becoming the Government of India (Amendment) Act 1916 (6 & 7 Geo. 5. c. 37).

The Government of India Act 1915 and its supplemental act the following year "made the English statute law relating to India easier to understand, and therefore easier to amend."[2] The Government of India Act 1919 made substantial changes to the law.

  1. ^ Ilbert, Courtenay Peregrine (1922), The Government of India (Third revised and updated ed.), Clarendon Press, p. 122
  2. ^ Ilbert (1922), p. 123.