History

History of Establishment District Court Chhindwara and its Tehsil Courts

Due to the abundance of “Chhind” (a sweet fruit that looks like dates) trees, there was a small village named Chhind, where Ratan Raghuvanshi, an elephant trader who came from Ayodhya-Faizabad (Uttar Pradesh), built an enclosure for Chhind. The building was constructed there, since then this place came to be known as village Chhindwara. After that, other relatives of Ratan Raghuvanshi came and lived here and Chhindwara started gaining recognition as a small market, then for the first time the boundary of this district was determined in 1861 during the “British rule”, at that time Balaghat, Seoni. , Betul district was also included in this Chhindwara district.

Kachehri in Chhindwara was first constructed in 1865 and at that time it also included the Tehsil office. Municipality in Saunsar and Pandhurna tehsils of Chhindwara was also started in the year 1867.
During the British period, the first building of the Civil Court was a two-storeyed compartment without parapet in the open space on the western side of the present Collectorate Office in Chhindwara, in which the courts operated. The people of Chhindwara knew that building as “Mundi Kachari”. It is noteworthy that judicial work was being conducted in Chhindwara Court before 1873. When the Justice Department was separated from the Executive in the year 1904, these were called Circle Courts, at that time the Sessions Judge was posted only in Hoshangabad. Mr. K.C.Wad was appointed the first session judge of Chhindwara. In 1916, a new building was constructed for the court, which at present has been declared a heritage building because it is the oldest building of the District Court, Chhindwara. (The court building is shown in picture no. 1,2,3).

In this particular area, during the “Bhonsle rule period”, Shri Sheikh Ali Khan Saheb, son of the then Tehsildar of this city, was the first Honorary Magistrate of this city.

Based on available records, the existing Civil Court building was completed in 1904 and the Civil Court was shifted to this building. Even before independence, British judges were posted in this court building. The court building of Saunsar was constructed in the year 1915-1916.

At present, District Court Building Chhindwara and Saunsar Court Building being the oldest, these buildings have been declared as heritage buildings.

Abhibhashak Sangh was first established in this city in 1904, whose president was Shri Vinayakrao Vachalwar. In the year 1902, Shri Khan Bahadur Syed Mohammad Saleh Rizvi came to Chhindwara from London after doing Bar at Law and used to practice in Civil Court Chhindwara. He was also the first government advocate of Chhindwara and was famous as an enlightened lawyer. In the year 1904, Chhindwara resident Raisaheb Hiralal Verma did M.A. from London. And after doing Bar at Law, he started advocacy and he was also a public prosecutor of two districts and was also a renowned advocate. Similarly, Shri Gulabchand Choudhary also practiced law in Chhindwara after practicing law from London.

From the year 1908 to the year 1937, Rai Saheb Mathuraprasad Verma was famous not only for his social work in this city; Rather, he has been working as the Chairman of the Municipality. For this reason he was honored with the title of “Officer of the British Empire”. He is especially recognized because he established the “Central Law Press” in the year 1904-05 for the printing of law books. This was the first printing factory in India, where English law books were printed after being translated into Hindi. Rai Saheb Mathura Prasad Verma has been the President of Advocates Association Chhindwara continuously from the year 1926 to the year 1937. Shri Hiralal Verma’s “Advocate Diary” of the year 1940 has become available; In which it is revealed that not only towards the method; But how conscious he was about his social and family role. This was the reason that day by day, whenever he came to know about the words, writings and medicines of scholars to keep the society and family moving forward and to maintain good health, he used to write it in his diary.

Chhindwara district remained functioning under Nagpur High Court till 31.10.1956. Appeals and revisions in civil and criminal cases of Chhindwara were heard in Nagpur. On 30.06.1948, the first book of Rules and Orders Criminal was prepared by the Registrar High Court, Nagpur. The preface to the said book was written by S.N. Ahmed, the registrar posted at that time. This book has also been accepted in the present Madhya Pradesh. In the year 1938, Rules and Orders Civil were compiled for the first time by the Honorable Nagpur High Court, which has also been accepted in the present Madhya Pradesh.

On 1 November 1956, with the establishment of the state of Madhya Pradesh, the Madhya Pradesh High Court was transferred from Nagpur to Jabalpur under sub-section (1) of Section 49 of the State Reorganization Act 1956, hence the Madhya Pradesh High Court was established in Jabalpur on 1 November 1956. Is. Before this the province came under the jurisdiction of Nagpur High Court. Nagpur High Court was established on 2 January 1936 by the order of George V for the Central Provinces under Section 108 of the Government of India Act 1915. It was given continuity as per the provisions of Articles 225 and 372 after the Indian Constitution came into force from 26 January 1950.

Apart from Chhindwara, the jurisdiction of Sessions Division Chhindwara extended to Seoni, Balaghat, Betul. Seoni became first session division in 1961, Balaghat in 1962-63 and Betul in 1968-69.

Senior advocate Shri S. A. Jafri, who was serving in the clerical cadre in Chhindwara Court from 1962 to 1970 and after attaining retirement in 1970, has been continuously practicing as an advocate in the District Court. Mr. Jafri tells that, according to his information, the court has been functioning in this building since the year 1902. Along with other judges, British judges were also posted here from 1902 to 1947-48. Initially, Chhindwara used to be a civil and revenue district, under which, apart from 05 tehsils Amarwada and Saunsar, courts were also functioning in Seoni, Betul, Balaghat. Out of the above Tehsil Courts, by the year 1969, Seoni, Betul and Balaghat became separate District Courts and remained functioning with Amarwada and Saunsar Tehsils along with Chhindwara headquarters. With time, Chhindwara District Court expanded and apart from Saunsar and Amarwada tehsils of Chhindwara, at present 04 other tehsil courts and civil courts were established in Pandhurna, Parasia, Chairai and Junnardev. Along with this, Permanent Additional District Judge is working in Amarwada and Additional District Judge is also working in Saunsar. Thus, at present court work is conducted in 06 tehsils including Chhindwara headquarters.

After independence, when the new Madhya Pradesh was established on 01.11.56, Shri C.B. Kekare was appointed as the first District Judge of Chhindwara. Till now 31 district judges have been posted in Chhindwara district, who have followed the excellent and dignified traditions of justice delivery.

Mr. K.S. Srivastava has been the first advocate in Chhindwara Advocates Association, who has been selected in the Higher Judicial Service and held the post of Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court. Honorable Justice Shri CV Sirpurkar is also the pride of District Advocates Association, Chhindwara. Apart from these, Mr. A.N.S. Srivastava, Mr. K.P. Tiwari, Mr. M.A. Khan, Mr. K.K. Bhardwaj, Mr. Ranjit Singh, who were associated with the District Advocates Association, Chhindwara, have also been posted in the higher judicial service; All these are the contribution of Chhindwara Advocates Association.

The existing civil court building of Chhindwara is built in “U” shape, which includes the existing bar room, record room, court room, office, ADJ court, Nazrat room, courts of civil judge class-1 and civil judge class-2. Are. This part was built during the British period. After the old building, the building expanded during the tenure of the then District Judge Shri MK Srivastava, which is limited to the existing CJM Court. After this, the building in which other civil courts are currently functioning; It was created by Honorable Justice Shri S.A. Naqvi, who was the then District Judge; This happened in the tenure year 1995-96. Thereafter, the construction of the building in which the Sessions and Additional Sessions Courts are currently functioning was completed in the year 2013.

New Malkhana Building, Legal Service House and ADR Building have recently been constructed in Chhindwara Headquarters. Jamai i.e. Junnardev Tehsil Court building was constructed in the year 2015.

Chhindwara district is the largest district in the entire Madhya Pradesh in terms of land area, whose total area is 11815 square kilometers. This district was formed on 1 November 1956. Presently there are 13 tehsils in this district which include Chhindwara, Parasia, Junnardev, Tamia, Amarwada, Chairai, Bichua, Saunsar, Pandhurna, Chand, Harrai, Umreth and Mohkhed. Of these, on the establishment of Chhindwara district, civil courts are established at the district headquarters, Parasia, Junnardev, Amarwada, Chairai, Saunsar, Pandhurna. Among these, the civil courts of Saunsar and Amarwada are the oldest. There is parliamentary constituency 1 and assembly constituency 8 in this district.

Thankyou