Fogg and Passepartout’s trial in Calcutta turns Passepartout’s earlier trespass at the Pagoda of Malabar Hill into a legal threat to Phileas Fogg’s journey. Fix has helped bring the complaint before the magistrates, hoping a prison sentence will detain Fogg until the arrest warrant arrives. The convictions impose a sharp financial and practical penalty, but Fogg’s decision to post bail lets the party leave for the Rangoon before the delay can derail their schedule.

Background: Rescue, Sacred Space, and Jurisdiction

The legal trouble grows out of two events that the novel sets in pointed contrast. Before the trial, Phileas Fogg and Sir Francis Cromarty witness a procession carrying the body of a rajah and a young woman toward a suttee. Fogg asks whether such customs still exist and why the English have been unable to stop them. Sir Francis answers that the authorities have no power over certain territories, especially Bundelcund, where violence and pillage persist. The conversation establishes a limit to the colonial government’s reach; it does not settle the fate of the young woman.

After the rescue, Fogg and Passepartout reach Calcutta accompanied by the woman they have saved. Yet the proceeding is not a prosecution for that rescue, nor is the complaint about the Pagoda of Pillaji. The judge identifies the alleged offence as Passepartout’s violation of the Pagoda of Malabar Hill in Bombay on 20 October. The distinction matters: the party has come under judicial pressure because of an earlier act at a different sacred site, not because the authorities are adjudicating the rescue that has brought them to Calcutta.

Fix makes that old incident newly consequential. He delays his departure by twelve hours, consults the priests of Malabar Hill, promises them damages, and sends them to Calcutta on the next train. The priests arrive before Fogg and Passepartout; a dispatch has already warned the magistrates to arrest the travelers. Fix’s intervention converts a local complaint into an instrument for obstructing Fogg’s onward journey.

The Complaint and the Evidence

The judge says the prisoners have been sought on the trains from Bombay for two days. When Passepartout asks what they are accused of, the judge orders the complainants admitted. Three Indian priests enter, and the clerk reads their complaint: Phileas Fogg and his servant are charged with violating a place held sacred by the Brahmin religion. Passepartout recognizes the priests as the men associated with the attempt to burn the young woman, but the charge before the court concerns the earlier temple trespass.

The location is clarified when Passepartout protests that the priests had been going to burn their young lady. The judge rejects that account as the subject of the case: the prosecution concerns the pagoda on Malabar Hill, not the Pagoda of Pillaji. The clerk then produces the alleged desecrator’s shoes, left behind at the site. Passepartout blurts out that they are his. The shoes make the earlier episode tangible in court, while his startled recognition reinforces the connection between the servant’s act and the prosecution.

Fogg admits the charge and remains composed as the proceedings continue. His admission does not prevent the judge from assigning responsibility to both travelers. The judgment invokes English law’s stern protection of Indian religions: Passepartout, who admitted violating the pagoda, is sentenced to fifteen days’ imprisonment and a fine of three hundred pounds. The ruling makes religious protection the stated legal basis of the penalty, even as Fix has arranged the complaint to serve his pursuit of Fogg.

Sentence, Bail, and Reversal

The judge also holds Fogg responsible for his paid servant’s actions, reasoning that the act has not been shown to have occurred without the master’s connivance. Fogg receives a week in prison and a fine of one hundred and fifty pounds. For Fix, this appears to offer the delay he needs: a week in Calcutta should give the arrest warrant time to arrive. For Passepartout, the sentences threaten the wager itself; he fears that his mistake has ruined his master’s chance of winning.

Fogg does not argue with the ruling. As the clerk is about to call the next case, he rises and offers bail. The judge sets bail at one thousand pounds for each prisoner. Fogg immediately takes bank-bills from the carpet-bag Passepartout is carrying and places them on the clerk’s desk. Both men are released on bail, with the money to be returned when they are released from prison. The fine and the bail are distinct: the bail secures their release while the case’s sentence remains in force.

The exchange exposes the practical difference between a judgment and an effective detention. Fix has obtained convictions and a substantial bail requirement, but Fogg can meet it at once. Passepartout, meanwhile, is given back the shoes that helped identify him; he complains that they are expensive and pinch his feet. The small, physical return of the evidence punctures the court’s attempted hold on the travelers, while Fogg’s payment turns the episode into another costly obstacle rather than a week-long stop.

Departure and Narrative Consequence

After leaving the court, Fogg offers his arm to Aouda, and the party takes a carriage to the quay. The Rangoon is already in the harbor with its departure signal raised. It is eleven o’clock, and Fogg is an hour ahead of time. Fix watches them push off in a boat toward the steamer and realizes that the imprisonment he expected has not kept Fogg in Calcutta. He laments the two thousand pounds committed to the bail and resolves to follow.

The trial therefore brings the legal and travel plots into direct contact without stopping the journey. Passepartout’s earlier trespass supplies the charge; Fix’s intervention sharpens it into a trap; Fogg’s composure and immediate payment defeat its intended delay. The sequence also places two claims of religious protection beside each other: Fogg had questioned the authorities’ inability to prevent suttee in Bundelcund, while the court enforces a penalty for violation of a sacred pagoda. The episode does not equate those matters, but its juxtaposition makes the uneven reach and operation of law part of the journey’s conflict. The party leaves for the Rangoon, still moving toward its next destination and still pursued by Fix.