| Commissioner of Division | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Administrator of a division of a state in India |
| Abbreviation | D.C. or C.D. |
| Member of |
|
| Seat | Commissioner office |
| Appointer | Respective Government of Indian State and Union Territories |
| Formation | 1829 (196 years ago) (1829)[1] |
| Salary | ₹1,44,200-1,82,200 and various other allowances and facilities |
ADivisional Commissioner, also known asCommissioner of division, is a career civil servant and a member ofIndian Administrative Service who serves as the administrator of adivision of a state in India. The post is referred to asregional commissioner inKarnataka and asrevenue divisional commissioner inOdisha.[2]
The division is constituted to oversee land revenue administration in the districts under its jurisdiction, along with other administrative functions. The Divisional Commissioner supervises land revenue administration and also oversees functions such as elections, disaster management, and inter-departmental coordination.
Office-bearers are generally either of the ranks of secretary to the state government, orprincipal secretary to state government.
The role of a divisional commissioner's office is to act as the administrative head of all the state government offices situated in the division. A divisional commissioner is given the direct responsibility of administering the land revenue collection, canal revenue collection and law & order maintenance of a division. The divisional commissioner also presides over Local government institutions in the division. Officers are transferred to and from the post by the state government. This post exists in many states of India. Divisional commissioners are responsible for general administration of the division and planned development of the districts under his control and also act asappeal adalat for revenue cases.
The division as an administrative level came into being in 1829 by theEast India Company to facilitate the administration of far flung districts as a result of an increase in the scope of operations corresponding to the expansion of British territories. Each division was put under the charge of a divisional commissioner. The position was also known asCommissioner of Revenue and Circuit Division because he was the presiding officer of circuit court, it had appellate jurisdiction over sessions court.[3][4][5][6] The post was created by then the Bengal government.[3][4][5][6] The institution of divisional commissioner was created byLord William Bentinck.[4][5][6]
The appointment of commissioners in the subsequently acquired provinces ofPunjab,Burma,Oudh and theCentral Provinces followed in due course. The commissioner had intermediary role between district collector and board of revenue.[4][5][6]
The Royal Commission for Decentralisation, 1907 recommended its retention. The issue, however, continued to crop up again and again, particularly at the time of constitutional reforms of 1919, 1935, and 1947. After independence, the state governments merely tinkered with traditional revenue set-up and the states ofMaharashtra,Rajasthan, andGujarat abolished the posts of divisional commissioners but later revived them except inGujarat.[4][5][6][7][8][9]
The roles and powers of commissioners vary from state to state but there is a general precedent. The divisional commissioner performs a variety of roles in regional administration. Today,district magistrates are quite junior officers, needing the guidance and supervision of a seasoned administrator like the divisional commissioner. During the British period, a member of theIndian Civil Service was normally appointed a collector of the district in his twelfth year of service. Today a member of the IAS becomes adistrict collector after putting in five or six years of service. With his or her insufficient administrative experience, adistrict collector of today necessarily needs guidance. The divisional commissioners, therefore, are a necessary part of the governmental machinery.[10][11][12]
The states and union territories in India that do not have divisions and thus do not have divisional commissioners are as follows:[13]
In these areas, administrative divisions are not established, and hence the role of a divisional commissioner, who typically oversees revenue administration at the divisional level, does not exist. The district administration reports to the revenue department of the government.