History

The Judicial activity in Nagaon district has long since been playing a significant role in administering justice in the district. The district judiciary is divided into two co-related divisions with two separate heads. The divisions are known as the “Judges’ Court” and “CJM’s Court”. The first court, where both Civil and Criminal matters are judged and decided is headed by the District & Sessions Judge while the second court, where criminal cases only are decided is headed by the Chief Judicial Magistrate. Both these two divisions comprise the district judiciary that is subordinate to the Hon’ble “The Gauhati High Court” at Guwahati and the District & Sessions Judge is empowered as the head of the district judiciary as well as sessions division.

The Nagaon Judiciary is enriched with glorious history. At first, two Civil Courts namely- the Court of the Munsiff and the Court of the Sub- Judge (Mafasal) were established in the district. The latter had to administer Justice in the then undivided Nagaon district (later divided into Nagaon and Morigaon districts) and in some parts of Karbi-Anglong and Sonitpur districts and thereby accomplished a Herculean task indeed. The Munsiff Court decided the cases of Civil matters. Both the said Courts were run under the supervision of the Hon’ble Gauhati High Court, Guwahati. However, the dignified post of District & Sessions Judge was created in 1967 and the Judges have accordingly been appointed by the Hon’ble Gauhati High Court, Guwahati.

Previously, the Criminal Courts were controlled by the District Magistrate/Deputy Commissioner prior to the amendment of the Cr.P.C. 1973. The cases of the criminal courts were then tried by the Addl. District Magistrate (Judl.). Since 30-07-1974, the Hon’ble High Court, Guwahti has been appointing the Chief Judicial Magistrate in the district for administering Criminal Justice. Since then as many as 19 Chief Judicial Magistrates were seen to have been working in the District and mentioned may be the name of the first one is Md. Abdul Mazid. It is heartening to note that our first C.J.M. has become the member of the Human Rights Commission, Assam. The distinguished name of the Hon’ble C.J.M’s. are on the record. Regarding formation of District Judge Court the History traced back to 1967 when Hon’ble Mr.B R Das Was appointed as a District Judge in the district. It is pried that as many as 4 District Judges were elevated to the coveted post of Hon’ble Judge of the Gauhati High Court. They are Sri D.N.Biswas, Sri P.G.Agarwal, Sri S.K.Kar and Sri I.A.Ansari and their Lordships are dispensing Justice with much calibre.