In medieval Deccan, the qazi sat in the court as a judge, made documents concerning inheritance and marriage, and performed religious ceremonies. As rewards for these duties, he was given inam lands, daily allowances and various perquisites. His role had greatly changed under the British rule. It was prescribed by Regulation No. 26 of 1827 of the Bombay Act, that qazis were appointed only by the Government, and their duties were restricted to attending the ceremony of marriage and divorce. The appointment of the qazi al-quzat (great qazi) or the qazi of a city, town or pargana by the Government, was prohibited by Act No. 11 of 1864, which abolished Regulation No. 26 of 1827 of the Bombay Act. With Bombay Act No. 3 of 1874 (the Bombay Hereditary Office Act), it was defined that the offices of the qazis would not be `hereditary offices'. With Act No. 12 of 1880 (the Qazis Act), it was prescribed that the qazis were to be appointed in some areas where they were required by the inhabitants for performing their ceremonies, but they would not possess any judicial power. Many trials over the qazi took place in the second half of the 19^th century. The issues were whether the offices of the qazis, appointed by the imperial edict and sanads (official papers) of Muslim governments, were hereditary or not, and whether the inam land and the daily allowances appertaining to the office of the qazi could be mortgaged and taken into seizure or not. In these law-suits, it was decided that neither the offices of the qazis nor the inam lands and the daily wages appertaining to the offices of the qazis were recognized as hereditary, unless the custom that the offices of the qazis were inherited for generations, was proved.

The `qazi' generally means `a judge', who also performed various duties in medieval India. His duties concerned all aspects of the lives of Muslims. The qazi were indispensable not only for the Muslim community, but also for the Muslim state.