British East India Company — Key Changes

Entry	Year	Description	Impact
21 Geo. III, c.70	1781	The amending Act commonly called the Act of Settlement, 1781 clarified the judicial arrangements established under the Regulating Act of 1773. Section I excluded the Governor-General and Council from the Calcutta Supreme Court’s jurisdiction for acts done in their public capacity. This was a qualified colonial arrangement: section III retained jurisdiction regarding orders extending to British subjects, and section IV preserved proceedings before a competent court in Britain. It was not a declaration that Company officials could never be held responsible.	The Company’s expansion created an institutional problem as well as a territorial one: its executive government and the Crown’s court asserted powers in the same setting. The amendment narrowed one route of judicial intervention while retaining other routes and exceptions. Use it to explain how Parliament adjusted the machinery of Company rule after the 1773 settlement. It did not transfer government to the Crown, create representative government or establish the modern Supreme Court of India.