EVOLUTION OF THE POST OF COLLECTOR OF CALCUTTA FROM TIME TO TIME
In 1699 Bengal was declared a separate Presidency by The British East India Company, with its fort called Fort William in honour of the King William III. And a President and Council of four members were appointed.
The members of the Council were: (1) The Accountant (2) The Ware-House-Keeper (3) The Marine purser and (4) The Receiver of Revenue or the Collector.
In 1700 the first to become the President of Fort William in Bengal was Sir Charles Eyre, Job Charnock’s son-in-law. And Ralph Sheldon became the first Collector of Calcutta.
The first designation in use was the Receiver of Revenue or the Collector of Calcutta, that came into force in 1700. Collector of Calcutta was a member of the 4-member Council. The President and Council were in overall charge and this official was accountable to them.
The second designation was the Zamindar of Calcutta and this office was created in 1720. This was the first separation of the office. It was so designated that the Zamindar exercised very extensive powers in executive matters, besides possessing civil and criminal jurisdiction over the native inhabitants beside his principal duty of collecting ground rent and town duties.
The Zamindar being the British required the assistance of a native deputy to discharge his duties. This native officer was known as Black Deputy or Black Zamindar.
From the time of first creation in 1720 till 1756 the office of the Black Deputy was first held by an extraordinary capable Bengali gentlemen Gobindo Ram Mitter. Thus, in a certain point of time this office came to be known as “Zamindar’s Cutcherry”.
The third designation was “Collector-General’.
In the fourth change that came about in 1801 the designation may be called the ”Amalgamated Collectorship” of Calcutta and 24-Parganas. This continued from March 1801 to 1819 and the first of such collectors was Frederick Fitzroy and the last Collector of such was Charles Trower.
The fifth change in the designation was “Collector of Calcutta Ground Rents” and the seal of the office was altered to “Calcutta Pattah office, 1819”. The first officer appointed to such post was Alexander Francis Lind, who was also “Sub-Secretary to the Board of Revenue”.
During 1823—35 the Collector of Calcutta also became the “Collector of Land Revenue, 24-Parganas”. By 1836 the Board of Revenue was thinking of maintaining “Calcutta as a separate and independent office of collection”.
On 29th August, 1837 an “uncovenanted” civil servant was appointed Collector of Calcutta i.e., a Dy. Collector in independent charge. The first Bengali to take advantage of the “uncovenanted office” was Kailash Chandra Dutt. First, he officiated as Collector of Calcutta when the permanent incumbent F.A. Lushington was not present. On his return Lushington was appointed Collector of 24-Parganahs and Kailash Chandra Dutt became the Collector of Calcutta.
The duties of Dy. Collectors were threefold—(i) the collection of the ground rents; (ii) the registration of titles to holdings; and (iii) the issue of pattah. The incumbents were Kailash Chunder Dutt in 1857, Shib Chunder Dutt from September 1860 to November 1861 and Abhoy Charan Mullick in December 1862.
In earlier times besides dealing with land records Collector’s other duties included collection of ground rent, town duties and subsequently collection of stamp duty and amusement tax etc. He was also associated with the duties of Collector of Customs, Excise, Income Tax etc. But gradually he was relieved of Custom, Excise and Income Tax duties.
The task for collection of Customs duty was first separated and a new office was created when the Governor-General of India ceased to be the Governor of Bengal and the Bengal Presidency began to be administered separately. This happened in 1854 when F. J. Halliday became the first Lt. Governor of Bengal. In 1918 the Collector of Calcutta was relieved of his duties as Collector of Income-Tax. And in 1924 a Separate post of the Collector of Excise was created to relieve the Collector of Calcutta of his excise duties.
CONTROLLING AUTHORITY OF KOLKATA COLLECTORATE
The Office of the Collector of Kolkata was established under British rule in India and was subsequently reconstituted in Independent India in the year 1950 under control of The Board of Revenue, vide West Bengal Board of Revenue’s Memorandum No. – 5288-DE dt. 28/06/1950 and presently functioning under Land & Land Reforms and Refugee Relief and Rehabilitation Department after the Board of Revenue, West Bengal got dissolved.
The Land registration system in this Presidency is more than two hundred years old. For the better management of the affairs of the East India Company in Europe as well as in India, George III passed in council on 9th January, 1781 “Rule, Ordinance and Registration” making room for systematic registration. By this statute the benefit of the laws of England as far as practicable to this country, was extended to all persons residing within the town of Calcutta as well as to British subjects, residents in any part of the provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa and its objects were to supply the want of registry of houses, lands and estimates and to prevent fraud. Prior to the promulgation of the Indian Registration Act, 1908, the registration of all transactions of any immovable asset were executed at the Calcutta Collectorate.
Also, the permission and sanctions under the Excise Directorate were also accorded by the Calcutta Collectorate as the Collectorate was headed by the post of Collector of Calcutta (Excise, Land & Stamp Revenue). Afterwards in 2012, the post has been renamed as Collector of Kolkata (Stamp & Revenue) by the Home Department, vide order no: 01 – I.S./10D-334/12 date: 24.12.2012.
Collector of Kolkata functions as Collector of Stamp Revenue, Kolkata under direct control of Finance (Revenue) Department, formerly Finance (Taxation) Department and these are two different charges assigned to the said very post vide Land & Land Reforms Department’s Order No: 3549-DE/LL/O/1E-538/2000-DE dt. 10th/11th April’2002.
Collector of Kolkata functions as the Registering Officer for the Presidency town of Calcutta for issuing of Citizenship Certificate under Rule 2(b) of The Citizenship Rules, 1956 against individual application after due enquiry, which was further confirmed by the Government of West Bengal issuing G.O. vide memo no: 5997(15)-P, dated 04.08.1956, Home (Political) Department.