The Government of India Act 1858 (21 & 22 Vict. c. 106) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed on 2 August 1858. Its provisions called for the liquidation of the East India Company (who had up to this point been ruling much of India under the auspices of Parliament) and the transferral of its functions to the British Crown.
Lord Palmerston, then-Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, introduced a bill in 1858 for the transfer of control of the government of India from the East India Company to the Crown, referring to the grave defects in the existing system of the government of India.