District Magistrate and Collector

A District Collector, often abbreviated to Collector, is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer in charge of revenue collection and administration of a district in India. Since District Collectors are also empowered as executive magistrates, the post is also referred to as the District Magistrate and as the office-bearer works under the supervision of a Divisional Commissioner, the post is also known as Deputy Commissioner.

District Administration in India is a legacy of the British Raj. District Collectors were members of the Indian Civil Service and were charged with supervising general administration in the district.

Warren Hastings introduced the office of the District Collector in 1772. Sir George Campbell, Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal from 1871-1874, 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 the 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 the police work. The office was meant to achieve the "peculiar purpose" of collecting revenue and of keeping the peace. The Superintendent of Police, Inspector General of Jails, the Surgeon General, the Divisional Forest Officer and the Chief Engineer had to inform the Collector of every activity in their Departments.

Until the later part of the nineteenth century, no native was eligible to become a District Collector. But with the introduction of open competitive examinations for the Indian Civil Services, the office was opened to natives. Anandaram Baruah, an eminent scholar of Sanskrit and the sixth Indian and the first Assamese ICS officer, became the third Indian to be appointed a District Magistrate, the first two being Romesh Chandra Dutt and Sripad Babaji Thakur respectively.

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