1. CC/CT: LET 252 | The Law of Equity
(Origin and Development of Equity Law)
CT: Adv. Jalal Uddin M. Akbar | SID: ARNAB/LLB 00305037
By the middle of the 13th century the law administered in England, was in part Customary Law and
Statutory Law. There were three kinds of Court in England. Such as-
1. The King’s Bench;
2. The Court of Common Pleas; and
3. The Exchequer
The whole common people of England filed a suit before the court of common pleas. The justice of the
Court of Common Pleas judged following the Customary Law and Statutory Law. But the court did not
provide proper remedy at all and it was not adequate remedy for the plaintiff or the defendant. The
law did not provide relief for all inconveniences. No provisions were made for matters of natural
justice. In such cases, a petition was made to the king-in-council to exercise his extraordinary judicial
powers and developed of referring these petitions according custom. It was dealing with these
petitions that the ‘Chancellor’ began his judicial functions and the ‘Court of Chancery’ was established
besides the Court of Common Law.
The ‘Chancellor’ acted according his judicial conscience or the principle of natural justice. The
principles and rules thus arising though the administration of justice in the Court of Chancery were
called ‘Equity’ in contradistinction in Common Law. In this way, two courts (Common Law Court and
Chancery Court) judged parallel in that time. In the 18th century Equity was composed as a legal system
and up to 1873 there remained two separate systems of courts namely-
1. Common Law Court and
2. Chancery Court
But in 1873 both the courts were dissolved by The Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1875 and created
a new unified High Court of justice with the Chancery division- 1 of 3 divisions of the High Court
succeeding the court of Chancery as an equitable body. There were two courts under The Supreme
Court of Judicature Act, 1875 and they were:
1. High Court and
2. Court of Appeal
And the High Court had 3 divisions and they were:
1. The Chancery Division
2. The King’s Bench Division and
3. Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division
These courts assigned with the powers of enforcing all the rights and remedies legal as well as
equitable.