Sub-Divisional Magistrate

A Sub-Divisional Magistrate is a title sometimes given to the head official of a country subdivision, an administrative unit that is sometimes below the level of district, depending on a country's government structure.

In India, a sub-divisional magistrate has several executive and magisterial roles to play under Criminal Procedure Code 1973, as well as several other minor acts.

Structure

Delhi, India has eleven districts and 33 Sub Divisions , three per district. The Districts are :-

1. North
2. Central
3. New Delhi
4. East
5. West
6. South
7. North-East
8. North-West
9. South-West
10. South-East
11. Shahdara

In Delhi, INDIA there are 15 Sub Registrar Office for Registration of Documents.

Each district is headed by a Deputy Commissioner, who has under him an Additional District Magistrate, Sub Divisional Magistrates, Tehsildars and Sub-Registrar. The District Administration carries out diverse variety of functions including magisterial matters, revenue courts, issue of various statutory documents, registration of property, conduct of elections, relief & rehabilitations, land acquisition and various other areas which are too numerous to be numerated. The District Administration in Delhi is the de-facto enforcement department for all kinds of Government Policies and exercises supervisory powers over numerous other functionaries of the Government.

At the apex of revenue hierarchy is the Divisional Commissioner who is also the District Magistrate of Delhi and Inspector General of Registration. He is also designated as Secretary (Revenue) and Collector under various Revenue Acts.

Functions

Revenue functions

Revenue functions involve maintenance of land records, conduct of revenue cases, carrying out of demarcation and mutations, settlement operations and functioning as custodian of public land. Deputy Commissioners and Additional District Magistrates are Collectors and Additional Collectors as per different Revenue Laws operating in Delhi. Sub Divisional Magistrates are designated as Assistant Collectors and Revenue Assistants and are primarily responsible for day to day revenue work. The subordinate revenue staff consisting of Girdavars, Kanungos and Patwaries are supervised by Tehsildars who are involved in field level revenue activities and mutations.

Issue of Certificates

Sub Divisional; Magistrates are empowered to issue various kinds of statutory certificates including SC/ST & OBC, Domicile, Nationality etc. Registration of Property documents, sale deeds, power of attorneys, share certificates and all other documents which need to be compulsorily registered as per law is made at Sub Registrar’s Office which are nine in numbers. Deputy Commissioners are Registrars for their respective districts and exercise supervisory control over the Sub Registrars.

Election work

Deputy Commissioners are District Election Officers and Returning Officers for Parliamentary Constituencies. Additional District Magistrates and Sub Divisional Magistrates are Returning Officers for Assembly Constituencies and Electoral Registration Officers in respect of Voters’ Lists. The District Officers are primarily responsible for conduct of Lok Sabha and Assembly Elections. The District Administration is also responsible for maintenance and revision of Voters’ Lists, for issue of Voters’ Photo Identity Cards (EPIC Cards) and Voters’ Certificates

Magisterial functions

Deputy Commissioners, Additional District Magistrates and Sub Divisional Magistrates exercise powers of Executive Magistrates. In this role they are responsible for operating preventive Sections of Code of Criminal Procedure. They also carry out enquiries in cases of unnatural deaths of women within seven years of marriage and issue directions to the Police for registration of case, if required.

Additional District Magistrates and Sub Divisional Magistrates are empowered to conduct enquiries into custodial deaths including deaths in Police Lock Up, Jails, Women Homes etc. The Officers of this Department are also expected to act as eyes and ears of the Government and conduct enquiries into all major accidents including major fires incidents, riots and natural calamities etc.

Registration of Marriage

Deputy Commissioners, Additional District Magistrates and Sub Divisional Magistrates are conferred with powers as Registrars of Marriage under the Hindu Marriage Act and Special Marriage Act. This power is ordinarily exercised by the Additional District Magistrates who are responsible for registration and solemnization of marriages.

Relief and Rehabilitation

This department is given the primary responsibility for relief and rehabilitation operations in any calamity whether natural or man-made. Deputy Commissioners’ Offices carry out relief operations during flood, fires, crop failures, droughts and other calamities. It is also responsible for coordinating and implementing disaster management plan for natural and chemical disasters and awareness generation programme on disaster preparedness is being carried out with the assistance of United Nations Development Programme.

This department is also involved in management of migrant camps and distribution of relief and pension to J&K Migrants, Punjab Migrants and 1984 Riots Victims etc.

See also

• Administrative division
• Table of administrative country subdivisions by country