History

The Judicial system of Ballia has a very remarkable background. Before 1957, Ballia was under the Jurisdiction of District & Sessions Court Ghazipur. Ballia Judgeship was created vide G.O. No. 3016/7-267/52 dated 09.07.1955 and Muhammad Ahmed was appointed as the first District and Sessions Judge on 09.07.1956. By another G.O. No.A5652/VII dated 23.03.1957, two additional courts including the court of District Judge and Civil Judge were too created and thus, Ballia Judgeship came into existence. Since then, the district of Ballia has been adorned by 56 District and Sessions Judges. Presently, the total sanctioned strength of a number of Judges in the Judgeship is 41 out of which 25 courts have been smoothly functioning under the supervision of District & Sessions Judge.

Infrastructural Status

The building of the first Sessions House, presently known as CJM Block was constructed in the year 1905, In fact, it is the oldest building of the Ballia Judgeship constructed in colonial architecture. The building slowly and gradually took a new shape comprising of one record room which was constructed in 1958 with the subsequent addition of six courtrooms, out of the four were built in 1962, while two others in 1975. With the increase in the strength of the Judges, it was desired to add further courtrooms and consequently, a newly constructed 10 Court Rooms building came into existence in the year 198-1 followed by buildings for Library, Fast Track Courts, Mediation Center, and 14Court Rooms’ building in the years 1982, 2004, 2016 and 2020 respectively.

Administrative History

Ballia has a very vibrant history of administration and revenue courts. In 1302 AD, King Bakhteyar Khilji, made a unit and named it Ballia Mahal for recovery of revenue. Later on, in 1798, Ballia was made tehsil of Ghazipur. In the last decade of the eighteenth century, Ballia and its adjoining areas were brought under the Permanent Settlement, which was started in 1793 by Lord Cornwallis. Total revenue assessed under the Settlement for the area of Ballia district was Rs. 5,74,212. In the 1880s a revision of the Revenue Settlement in Ballia district was undertaken by D.T. Roberts. Before giving final shape to the revision of the settlement a cadastral survey was also performed during 1882-83. The detailed survey exercise for the Settlement began in 1882 and was completed three years later. Though the parganas of Bhadaon and Sikandarpur were excluded from this survey, as these had been already surveyed while being part of Azamgarh district. The revision work of these parganas was performed by J. Vaughan, who was ably supervised by J.R. Reid, the then Settlement Officer of Azamgarh. After the revolt of 1857, in the British regime, some parts of Ghazipur and Azamgarh were separated and a new district namely, Ballia was created on 1, November, 1879 with its present boundaries. In the year 1881 Robert Warlo, an ICS officer was appointed as the first Collector cum Magistrate of Ballia. The district was further divided into three sub-divisions viz; Ballia, Rasra, and Bansdih for the sake of facilitation in revenue collection and in the year 1901. Presently, it consists of six tehsils namely Ballia, Bansdih, Rasra, Bairia, Sikanderpur, and Belthara. The total area of the District is 2981 K.M. The administrative expenses were sourced basically from the land revenue and income received through a collection of the license tax, stamp tax, excise tax, etc.

Establishment Structure

Sr. No.	Establishment Name	Courts/Jurisdiction	Approx. Pendency
1	District and Sesions Judge	All ADJs, Special Judges, ADJ/FTC	8K
2	Chief Judicial Magistrate	All Magistrates dealing with Criminal Cases	70K
3	Civil Judge (Senior Division)	All Civil Courts of valuation more than	4K
4	Civil Judge (Junior Division)	Civil Courts of the valuation upto	30K
5	Family Courts	Principal Judge and Addl. Principal Judges dealing with family matters	5K
6	Outlying Court – Rasra	Civil and Criminal Cases related to Rasra Jurisdiction	3K
7	Gram Nyayalaya – Sikanderpur	Civil and Criminal Cases related to Sikanderpur Jurisdiction	2K