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| District magistrate | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Incumbent since 1772District magistrate | |
| Type | Executive Head of the district |
| Status | Executive Officer of the District |
| Abbreviation | DM/DC |
| Member of | Indian Administrative Service State Civil Services |
| Reports to |
|
| Seat | Collectorate |
| Appointer | President of India |
| Constituting instrument |
|
| Formation | 1772 (253 years ago) (1772) |
| Deputy | Additional collector Additional district magistrate Additional deputy commissioner |
| Salary | ₹56,100-78,800 and various other allowances and facilities[1] |
Thedistrict magistrate, also known as thedistrict collector ordeputy commissioner, is acareer civil servant[a][2] who serves as the executive head of adistrict's administration in India. The specific name depends on thestate 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 maintaininglaw and order, while 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.[3][4] The district magistrate comes under the general supervision ofdivisional 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 the revenue organization (tax collection) for the district. With the passage of theGovernment of India Act 1858,[5][6] by theBritish Parliament.[7]
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."[8][9][10]
The office of a collector during theBritish 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.[11] The office was meant to achieve the "peculiar purpose" of collecting revenue and of keeping the peace. Thesuperintendent 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.[8][9][10]
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 theIndian Civil Service, the office was opened to natives.Romesh Chandra Dutt, Sripad Babaji Thakur,Anandaram Baruah,Krishna Govinda Gupta andBrajendranath De were the first five Indian ICS officers to become Collectors.[8][9][10]
The district continued to be the unit of administration after India gained independence in 1947. The role of 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 theNehru government in 1952, the district collector was entrusted with the additional responsibility of implementing theGovernment of India's development programs in the district.[8][9][10][12]
The nomenclature of the office of the district head is a legacy of the administrative practices ofBritish India. Although the functions and powers of the officer were largely uniform across the country, the designation often reflected the primary responsibility associated with the office in a particular province. In theBengal Presidency, the post was known as District Magistrate and Collector, whereas in theBombay Presidency and theCentral Provinces it was generally referred to as the District Collector, even though the officer also exercised magisterial powers. In theMadras Presidency, the office was more commonly styled simply as Collector.
In theUnited Provinces, where the maintenance of law and order was regarded as the foremost duty, the designation District Magistrate came into use and continues in present-dayUttar Pradesh. In several non-regulation provinces such asPunjab,Burma,Assam andOudh, a simplified system of administration was followed, with many provisions of theCriminal Procedure Code kept in abeyance. In these regions, the District Magistrate also functioned as the District and Sessions Judge, and the office came to be designated as the Deputy Commissioner. This usage arose because such provinces were administered by a Chief Commissioner, who combined the roles of Governor and High Court by exercising both executive and judicial authority.[13][14][15]
After Independence, these different designations have continued, even though the responsibilities and powers of the office are substantially the same throughout India:[13]
Deputy Commissioner (DC): Used in states and union territories such asKarnataka,Assam,Meghalaya,Mizoram,Nagaland,Jammu and Kashmir,Punjab,Haryana,Delhi,Himachal Pradesh,Jharkhand andArunachal Pradesh.
District Collector (DC): Used inKerala,Tamil Nadu,Telangana,Andhra Pradesh,Goa,Maharashtra,Sikkim,Odisha,Gujarat,Puducherry andLakshadweep.
District Magistrate (DM): Used inUttar Pradesh,Madhya Pradesh,Uttarakhand,West Bengal,Rajasthan,Bihar,Tripura andChhattisgarh.
They are posted by thestate government, from among the pool ofIndian 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 theUnion 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 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.[16]
The salary of a District Collector/District Magistrate is governed by the IAS pay scale as per the7th Central Pay Commission. Officers in the Senior Time Scale (Level 11) receive a basic pay ranging from ₹67,700 to ₹2,08,700. At the Junior Administrative Grade (Level 12), the pay scale increases to ₹78,800–₹2,09,200. With further seniority, officers reach the Selection Grade (Level 13), where the basic pay ranges from ₹1,23,100 to ₹2,15,900. In addition to the basic pay, officers are entitled to allowances like Dearness Allowance, House Rent Allowance, and Travel Allowance, significantly enhancing their total salary.[17][18][19]
The District Collector/District Magistrate is provided with Personal Security Officers (PSOs), including armed guards, to ensure their safety and protection.[20][21]
The District Collector/District Magistrate has personal staff, including a Personal Assistant (PA), a Secretary, and other support staff like clerks, peons, and drivers.[22]
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), theArms 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 variousstate andcentral government schemes and projects atdistrict level. The responsibilities assigned to a district magistrate vary from state to state, but generally, Collectors, under the general supervision ofdivisional commissioners (where such a post exists),[23][24] are entrusted with a wide range of duties in the jurisdiction of the district, generally involving the following:[8][9][10][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]
While almost all of the 741 Indian districts are headed by DMs, constitutional developments post Independence in 1947 have led to 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 theConstitution of India. This meant that DMs and SDMs could no longer try criminal cases or commit accused toSessions Court. Their place was taken by Chief Judicial Magistrates and Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrates. The District Magistrate 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 was not created till 1978 inDelhi, 2008 inMizoram, 2016 inArunachal Pradesh and 2020 inMeghalaya.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.[44]
The need to restructure the roles of the District Collector is for removing 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.[45][46][47][48]
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[49]
Former IAS officer T. R. Raghunandan has criticised the continued centralised role of the district collector/district magistrate, arguing that it is outdated and impedes participative governance and development. In an article published inThe Print in 2025, he stated that theIndian Administrative Service has perpetuated what he described as a “myth of the collector’s infallibility,” which sidelines local governments and concentrates administrative power in a single officer.
Raghunandan highlighted the administrative burden faced by collectors, noting that they chair dozens of committees in states such asAndhra Pradesh andAssam. He also cited a reform experiment in Karnataka (1987–1992) where collectors were made subordinate to electedZilla Parishad chiefs, which did not result in governance failures as some had feared. Overall, he argued that although constitutional amendments have sought to strengthen local governance, there has been limited political will to reduce the collector’s authority or fully empowerlocal governments.
Raghunandan argued that the IAS has resisted decentralisation and retained control, despite constitutional provisions for empowering local governments.[50][51]
Kolkata in West Bengal does not have 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.[52]
