Tehsildar

InBangladesh,India,andPakistan,atehsildar,talukdar,ormamlatdaris a land revenue officer accompanied by revenue inspectors. They are in charge of obtaining taxes from atehsilwith regard to land revenue. A tehsildar is also known as an executive magistrate of the relevant tehsil. The immediate subordinate of a tehsildar is known as anaib tehsildar.

Etymology

The term is assumed to be ofMughalorigin and is perhaps a union of the words "tehsil" and "dar". "Tehsil" is presumably anArabicword meaning "revenue collection", and "dar" is aPersianword meaning "holder of a position".Mamlatdar is a synonymous term used in some Indian states that comes from the Hindi wordmāmala(मामला), which is derived from the Arabicmuʿāmala(مُعَامَلَة‎ – "conduct, dealing, handling" ).

India

British rule

DuringBritish rule,a tehsildar was most likely astipendiaryofficer of the government, employed to raise revenue. The position was calledmamlatdarinGoaand some parts ofMaharashtra.It was subsequently used by Pakistan and India following their independence from theBritish Empire.Tehsildar is also known as Talukdar in some states ofIndia.In Assam, Bengal, and parts of Jharkhand, a tehsildar is known as aMouzadar.

Independence

Tehsildar are Class 1 gazetted officers in most states of India. In Uttar Pradesh, tehsildar are given powers of assistant collector Grade I. They also are given judicial power. They implement the various policies of thetalukaand are subject to thedistrict collector.Officers holding the post of tehsildar preside over matters related to land, tax, and revenue. Tehsildar were first appointed as Naib Tehsildars after successful completion of a State Service Exam (i.e.UP-PSCin Uttar Pradesh,HP-PSCin Himachal Pradesh,RPSCin Rajasthan,MP-PSCin Madhya Pradesh,BPSCin Bihar,AP-PSCin Andhra Pradesh,TSPSCin Telangana, or other equivalent exams in other states of India), or promoted from a subordinate post like Kanoongo (also known as Revenue Inspectors). In Uttar Pradesh, tehsildar are promoted from Naib Tehsildar. Later on, they get promoted to the post ofsub-divisional magistrate.

In Goa, the mamlatdar heads thetalukarevenue office. While each taluka has a mamlatdar, there are also several joint mamlatdars and the work is distributed among them.

Each state is divided into districts. The district's senior civil servant is the district collector/district magistrate, who is an officer from theIAScadre. These districts are further subdivided intorevenue subdivisionsor prants (West India). Each subdivision is under the charge of an officer designated as a sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), or deputy collector, who is a member of the State Civil Service cadre. In the revenue department, the deputy collector reports to the district revenue officer (DRO), who is also called the additional district magistrate (ADM Revenue) and is the person in charge of the revenue department for the district. The DRO in turn reports to the district collector (also called district magistrate, or DM), who is in charge of overall management of the district across all departments.Deputy collectors are hired through State Service Selection Commissions, whereas DROs and district collectors are usually Centre Civil Services employees appointed to the state cadre.