30-499: Patna Collectorate or Patna district Collector (District Collectorate, Patna) is administrative head office of Collector of Patna district in Patna, Bihar , India (district headquarters). It is on the bank of river Ganges , close to Gandhi Maidan . It is in the style of Dutch architecture and British architecture and is over 200-year-old building complex. In 2008, the Collectorate
60-837: A Secretary, and other support staff like clerks, peons, and drivers. The District Collector holds a diverse range of responsibilities that are defined under various laws and regulations, including the Land Revenue Act, Revenue recovery rules, Land acquisition act , Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), the Arms Act, 1959 , The Cinematograph Act, Registration Act, peoples representation act, and other relevant acts. They are entrusted with land revenue administration, maintaining law and order, managing district administration, and implementing government policies and also they are incharge of various state and central government schemes and projects at district level. The responsibilities assigned to
90-481: A collector during the British Raj held multiple responsibilities – as collector, he was the head of the revenue organization, charged with registration, alteration, and partition of holdings; the settlement of disputes; the management of indebted estates; loans to agriculturists, and famine relief. As district magistrate, he exercised general supervision over the inferior courts and in particular, directed
120-605: A conventional collector. A recently created post with the same name performs the functions of collector of stamp revenue, registration and certain other miscellaneous functions. The Magisterial powers are exercised by a Police Commissioner, one of the earliest such posts in British India, while the Kolkata Municipal Corporation takes care of all other responsibilities. Government of India Act 1858 The Government of India Act 1858 ( 21 & 22 Vict. c. 106)
150-420: A district magistrate vary from state to state, but generally, Collectors, under the general supervision of divisional commissioners (where such a post exists), are entrusted with a wide range of duties in the jurisdiction of the district, generally involving the following: While almost all of the 741 Indian districts are headed by DMs, constitutional developments post Independence in 1947 have led to
180-695: A reduction in power and realignment of roles for the District Magistrate. The first major change came about in the early 1960s as the Judiciary was separated from the Executive in most Indian states in line with Article 50 of the Constitution of India . This meant that DMs and SDMs could no longer try criminal cases or commit accused to Sessions Court . Their place was taken by Chief Judicial Magistrates and Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrates. The District Magistrate
210-708: Is headed by the District collector (also called magistrates), an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer. Offices of The Additional District Magistrate & Deputy Collector (General), Deputy Collector (Land Acquisition), Deputy Collector (Revenue Recovery), Deputy Collector (Disaster Management), Deputy Collector (Election), Deputy Collector (Land Reforms) and office of the Senior Finance Officer are also functioning in Collectorate Building. District Collector The district magistrate , also known as
240-570: The Criminal Procedure Code suspended and the DM functioning as the District and Sessions Judge as well. Here the post was known as Deputy Commissioner, due to these provinces having a Chief Commissioner who took the place of the usual Governor and High Court and exercised both executive and judicial functions. Post Independence, the different names have continued even though the role and powers of
270-458: The district collector or deputy commissioner , is a career civil servant who serves as the executive head of a district 's administration in India. The specific name depends on the state or union territory . Each of these posts has distinct responsibilities, and an officer can assume all of these roles at once. The district magistrate is primarily responsible for maintaining law and order , while
300-580: The Better Governance of India" and it was passed on 2 August 1858. This act provided that India was to be governed directly and in the name of the Crown. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 compelled the British government to pass the act. The act was followed a few months later by Queen Victoria's proclamation to the "Princes, Chiefs, and People of India", which, among other things, stated, "We hold ourselves bound to
330-807: The DM are almost the same throughout India. [Chhattisgarh]], etc. They are posted by the state government , from among the pool of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and State Civil Services (SCS) officers, who either are on Level 11, Level 12 or Level 13 of the Pay Matrix, in the state. The members of the IAS are either directly recruited by the Union Public Service Commission , promoted from State Civil Service (SCS) or nominated from Non-State Civil Service (Non-SCS). The direct recruits are posted as Collectors after five to six years of service. SCS officers are also posted as Collectors when they attain at least
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#1733093559515360-471: The Selection Grade (Level 13 Grade Pay) in their service. A District Magistrate and Collector is transferred to and from the post by the state government. The District Collector/District Magistrate is provided with Personal Security Officers, including armed guards, to ensure their safety and protection. The District Collector/District Magistrate has personal staff, including a Personal Assistant (PA),
390-509: The colonial legacy, corruption, promoting uniformity, devolving power to local bodies, ensuring separation of power, mitigating power concentration, addressing status quoist tendencies, and advancing grass-root democracy. There have also been many instances where at lower levels, district magistrates have pressurized victims or their family members, especially if they belong to the marginalized community Kolkata in West Bengal does not have
420-571: The demolition were dismissed by the Indian Supreme Court in May 2022, and by June, several parts of the complex, including the District Magistrate's office, were destroyed. A 1920s-vintage coal-fired steamroller built by John Fowler & Company of Leeds and used to smoothen roads in India during British rule was discovered in one of the buildings of the Collectorate. After campaigns by locals, Patna Museum acquired it for display. The Collectorate
450-468: The district collector focuses on land revenue administration, and the deputy commissioner is in charge of overseeing developmental activities and coordinates government departments. Additionally, they also serve as election officers, registrar, marriage officer, licensing authority, and managing disaster responses, among other things. While the specific scope of duties may vary from state to state, they are generally similar. The district magistrate comes under
480-582: The district collector remained largely unchanged, except for the separation of most judicial powers to judicial officers of the district. Later, with the promulgation of the National Extension Services and Community Development Programme by the Nehru government in 1952, the district collector was entrusted with the additional responsibility of implementing the Government of India 's development programs in
510-609: The district. The different names of the office are a legacy of the varying administration systems in British India . While the powers exercised by the officer were mostly the same throughout the country, the preferred name often reflected his primary role in the particular province. In the Bengal Presidency , the post was called District Magistrate and Collector whereas in the Bombay Presidency and Central Provinces , it
540-705: The early 17th century. The building was constructed by the Dutch East India Company and it was used as a godown during the Dutch period . During the British Raj , the British reused this building as Collectorate. The Collectorate started functioning from its present premises from 1857. In 1938, the District Board building was added, which is built in the British architecture . In 2016, the Bihar government decided to dismantle
570-573: The general supervision of divisional commissioner . Warren Hastings introduced the office of the District Collector in the Judicial Plan of 1772. By the Judicial Plan of 1774, the office of the Collector cum District Magistrate was temporarily renamed Diwan or Amil. The term Collector was brought back under the Judicial Plan of 1787. The name, Collector, derived from the holder being the head of
600-475: 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. However, before this bill was to be passed, Palmerston was forced to resign on another issue. Edward Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby (who would later become the first Secretary of State for India ), subsequently introduced another bill which was titled "An Act for
630-558: The natives of our Indian territories by the same obligation of duty which bind us to all our other subjects" (p. 2) The act ushered in a new period of Indian history, bringing about the end of Company rule in India . The era of the new British Raj would last until the Partition of India in August 1947, when the territory of India was granted dominion status as the Dominion of Pakistan and
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#1733093559515660-614: The old buildings and replace them with a new complex. This led to widespread voiced protests and criticism by historians and different organisations, most notably; the New Delhi based Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage and the London based Gandhi Foundation . In April 2016, Ambassador of the Netherlands to India Alphonsus Stoelinga in a letter to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar appealed to spare Collectorate. Legal challenges to
690-479: The police work. The office was meant to achieve the "peculiar purpose" of collecting revenue and of keeping the peace. The superintendent of police (SP), inspector general of jails, the surgeon general, the divisional forest officer (DFO) and the Executive Engineer PWD (EE) had to inform the collector of every activity in their departments. Until the later part of the nineteenth century, no native
720-495: The revenue organization (tax collection) for the district. With the passage of the Government of India Act 1858 , by the British Parliament . Sir George Campbell , lieutenant-governor of Bengal from 1871 to 1874, intended "to render the heads of districts no longer the drudges of many departments and masters of none, but in fact the general controlling authority over all departments in each district." The office of
750-648: 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 British 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
780-519: Was eligible to become a district collector. But with the introduction of open competitive examinations for the Indian Civil Service , the office was opened to natives. Romesh Chandra Dutt , Sripad Babaji Thakur, Anandaram Baruah , Krishna Govinda Gupta and Brajendranath De were the first five Indian ICS officers to become Collectors. The district continued to be the unit of administration after India gained independence in 1947. The role of
810-574: Was known simply as the District Collector even though he was also the District Magistrate. In the Madras Presidency , it was often known simply as Collector. Law and order was an important subject in the United Provinces and the post continues to be known as the District Magistrate in present-day Uttar Pradesh . In non-regulation provinces like Punjab , Burma , Assam and Oudh , a simpler form of administration prevailed with many elements of
840-473: Was listed as heritage building by the Government of Bihar . In 2016, the government proposed its demolition and replacement with a new office complex. The Indian Supreme Court dismissed petitions from the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage , a heritage organisation, to stay the demolition in May 2022, and the complex began to be razed the following day. The Dutch first came to Patna in
870-659: Was not created till 1978 in Delhi , 2008 in Mizoram , 2016 in Arunachal Pradesh and 2020 in Meghalaya . South Garo Hills District in Meghalaya, the last remaining district of India with the District Magistrate also exercising judicial powers, finally got a separate District and Sessions Court on 17 December 2020. The need to restructure the roles of the District Collector is for removing
900-836: Was now the main Executive Magistrate of the district - charged with taking preventive measures for maintenance of law and order. Indirectly, this led to a loss of direct control over the police which now depended on the District Judge and the Judicial Magistrates. This change was institutionalised by the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. In the Union Territories and the North Eastern states, Collectors continued to exercise judicial power for much longer. A separate district judiciary
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