to banish them from the island. Despite the dubious legal status of the courts established in Singapore by Raffles and Crawfurd, they indicate that the de facto position was that between 1819 and 1826 English legal principles applied to Singapore. On 24 June 1824 Singapore and Malacca were formally transferred to the East India Company's administration by the Transfer of Singapore to East India Company, etc. Act 1824. By virtue of the Fort Marlborough in India Act 1802 both territories, together with others in the region ceded to Britain by the Netherlands, became subordinate to the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal, and under the Government of India Act 1800 these territories became subject to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Fort William. The Indian Salaries and Pensions Act 1825 authorised the East India Company to place Singapore and Malacca under the administration of Prince of Wales' Island (now Penang). The Company did so, thus creating the Straits Settlements. 1826–1867: The "Indian period" The statute 6 Geo. IV c. 85 empowered the British Crown to issue letters patent providing for the administration of justice in the Straits Settlements. The East India Company petitioned the Crown for the grant of such letters patent establishing "such Courts and Judicatures for the due administration of Justice and the security of the persons rights and property of the Inhabitants and the Public Revenue of and the Trial and Punishment of Capital and other Offences committed and the repression of vice within the said Settlement of Prince of Wales’ Island Singapore and Malacca…" Granting the petition, the Crown issued the Second Charter of Justice on 27 November 1826. The Charter established the Court of Judicature of Prince of Wales' Island, Singapore and Malacca, which was conferred "full Power and Authority… to give and pass Judgement and Sentence according to Justice and Right". This key clause was later judicially interpreted to have introduced English law into the Straits Settlements. The present understanding of this clause is that it made all English statutes and principles of English common law and equity in force as at 27 November 1826 applicable in the Straits Settlements (including Singapore), unless they were both unsuitable to local conditions and could not be modified to avoid causing injustice or oppression. The Charter provided that the Court of Judicature was to be presided over by the Governor of the Straits Settlements and Resident