Revenue Police System of Uttarakhand | Uttarakhand State PSC (UKPSC): Preparation - UKPSC (Uttarakhand) PDF Download

 Page 1


Revenue Police System of Uttarakhand
This is also known as patwari police system. In this system in certain areas of
the State, policing is carried out by revenue department in place of police
department. In other words functions like law and order, crime prevention etc
are looked after by revenue department. Today around 65% area of the state
comes under this system of policing. Patwari is a functionary in revenue
department and has an important role in measuring land, preparing and
maintaining land records. But only in Uttarakhand this functionary also
carries out policing functions.Under this system Patwari also functions as a
Sub Inspector who has all the rights and powers of a station House Officer.
The Naib Tahsildar is endowed with powers of Deputy Superintendent of
Police. The Patwari is also a protocol Officer during a VIP visit.
Under the Uttarakhand Police Act 2007, which draws a great deal of its
provisions from the Police Act 1861, there are two systems of maintaining
law and order in the state.First is regular policing, which is deployed in cities,
villages near cities and along Char Dham Yatra route. The other is Revenue
Police which looks after law and order in rural areas in hilly areas. The
Revenue police operates through Patwari Chawkis or the Posts which
functions as a Police Thana. While regular police is headed by DGP who
belongs to Indian Police Service(IPS), Revenue Police is headed by officers
of Indian Administrative Services (IAS). The Chief Revenue Commissioner
is Director General of Revenue Police. Thus both IPS and IAS are
responsible for policing in the state.
History- The History of Revenue Policing in Uttarakhand can be traced
back to British era. After Treaty of Sagauli, Uttarakhand was divded into two
parts. One can be called British Uttarakhand and other was princely state of
Tehri. British Uttarakhand was called Kumaon Commissionary. Introduction
of Revenue Police can be explained in the words of Trail, the second
commissioner of Kumaun. He wrote a letter to Governor General of India
saying, crime rate is almost nill in this hilly area, and seeing the special
geographical conditions, there was no need for regular policing, except in
places as Ranikhet, Almora,and Nainital.Thus first police thana was
established at Almora in 1837, at Ranikhet in 1843 and apart from Nainital
Page 2


Revenue Police System of Uttarakhand
This is also known as patwari police system. In this system in certain areas of
the State, policing is carried out by revenue department in place of police
department. In other words functions like law and order, crime prevention etc
are looked after by revenue department. Today around 65% area of the state
comes under this system of policing. Patwari is a functionary in revenue
department and has an important role in measuring land, preparing and
maintaining land records. But only in Uttarakhand this functionary also
carries out policing functions.Under this system Patwari also functions as a
Sub Inspector who has all the rights and powers of a station House Officer.
The Naib Tahsildar is endowed with powers of Deputy Superintendent of
Police. The Patwari is also a protocol Officer during a VIP visit.
Under the Uttarakhand Police Act 2007, which draws a great deal of its
provisions from the Police Act 1861, there are two systems of maintaining
law and order in the state.First is regular policing, which is deployed in cities,
villages near cities and along Char Dham Yatra route. The other is Revenue
Police which looks after law and order in rural areas in hilly areas. The
Revenue police operates through Patwari Chawkis or the Posts which
functions as a Police Thana. While regular police is headed by DGP who
belongs to Indian Police Service(IPS), Revenue Police is headed by officers
of Indian Administrative Services (IAS). The Chief Revenue Commissioner
is Director General of Revenue Police. Thus both IPS and IAS are
responsible for policing in the state.
History- The History of Revenue Policing in Uttarakhand can be traced
back to British era. After Treaty of Sagauli, Uttarakhand was divded into two
parts. One can be called British Uttarakhand and other was princely state of
Tehri. British Uttarakhand was called Kumaon Commissionary. Introduction
of Revenue Police can be explained in the words of Trail, the second
commissioner of Kumaun. He wrote a letter to Governor General of India
saying, crime rate is almost nill in this hilly area, and seeing the special
geographical conditions, there was no need for regular policing, except in
places as Ranikhet, Almora,and Nainital.Thus first police thana was
established at Almora in 1837, at Ranikhet in 1843 and apart from Nainital
rest of the British Uttarakhand (Kumaon Commissionary) was placed under
Revenue Policing.
Legal Status- There are mainy four statutes governing Revenue Policing in
uttarakhand.
Under the Scheduled District Act 1874, the Revenue Police was given the
policing rights. Under this law, local administration had the right in
Scheduled Districts to appoint officer for the implementation of Criminal
justice system. In 1906, administration desolved the policing powers of
Thokdars, Padhans, and increased powers that of Patwari.
Kumaun Police Act 1916 was promulgated for hill areas of Nainital,
Almora, Bageshwar, Champawat, Pithoragarh, Chamoli, Rudraprayag and
Pauri. This introduced revenue policing in above regions and also provided a
legal framework for similar laws in other regions.
Tehri Garhwal Revenue Officials (Special Powers) Ordinance 1956 was
enacted to introduce revenue policing in the districs of Tehri Garhwal and
Uttarkashi which have been part of Tehri state till then. This ordinance does
not directly give power to the Patwaris but section 2 of the ordinance
authorized state government to provide for the same. With a government
order on 4
th
 March 1958, revenue officials were given policing powers.
The Jaunsar Bawar Pargana (district Dehradun) Revenue Officials
(Special Rights) Ordinance 1958 which was promulgated for the tribal
tehsil of Chakarata, Patwari was given policing powers thus introduce
revenue policing in this region too.
In the State the Revenue Police System has been functioning well, but with
the passage of time more and more areas are coming under regular policing.
In January 2018, Nainital High Court in its judgement asked the State
Government to abolish Revenue Policing system and bring in regular
policing in entire State. However the State Government has appealed against
the judgement in Supreme Court.