History

The establishment of civil courts at Jaunpur is very old. Prior to the year 1857, with courts of sadarai Amir(Munsif and Sadarai sadar Civil Judge)were located in city itself.

In 1770, when the province of Benaras was ceded to East India Company by the Nawab Wazir, the only magisterial courts were those of the amils or revenue officials and of the kotwal of the city Jaunpur. This system continued till 1788, when Duncun appointed one Judge and police magistrate to hear these cases for the city and suburbs, appeals against those Judgements lying to the residents at Varanasi. For the rural areas mulki adalat, with civil as well as criminal powers , was established the superior court being that of Resident in his capacity of Judge of Sadar Diwani and Nizamat. The Judge’s court was located in the fort in order to lend greater dignity to his office. In 1795 under regulation VII of that year , the native court was abolished, and a covenanted civilian was appointed Judge and magistrate of Zila Court. At the same time munsifs were appointed, the position of old qazis was defined by law, their functions embracing those of registrars of deeds, and the control of police was vested in the tahsildars, who had taken the place of the former amils. A provincial court of appeal was established at Benaras(now Varanasi), two Judges visiting Jaunpur on circuit twice yearly for the purpose of holding goal deliveries. In 1797 this was made regular court of circuit, and continued till its abolition in 1829. The Judge of Jaunpur retained his Magisterial powers till 1830 when the Judgeship ceased to exist.

The district was placed in 1875 under the concurrent jurisdiction of Judges of Mirzapur and Benaras (now Varanasi), and then under that of the latter alone. In 1880,however ,the office of Judge was created, and that officer has since 1894 been entrusted with the duty of holding sessions at Basti , in addition to the Civil and Criminal work of Jaunpur district. Now the district judiciary is headed by the District Judge with headquarters at Jaunpur, under the jurisdiction of High Court of Judicature at Allahabad. He is the highest judicial authority in the district for all Civil and Criminal matters, his court being the principal civil Court of original appellate jurisdiction. As Sessions Judge he hears sessions cases committed to it by the magistrates and possesses the power to award capital punishment. Till the early part of 1975 he was also ex-officio District Registrar for the whole district. The work has since been transferred and the Additional District Magistrate (Finance and Revenue) functions as the District Registrar.

Later on there were the courts of Civil and Session Judge, subordinate Judge i.e. civil and munsif in this Judgeship. The scheme of separation of the Judiciary from the executive in the district was enforced from October 2, 1967 as a result of which the Judicial Magistrate remained no longer subordinate the District Magistrate, and they were placed under the subordination of the District and Sessions Judge. They tried all cases under Indian Penal code. This process received with the enforcement of the new code of Criminal Procedure on April 1, 1947, which ensures an absolute separation of Judiciary from Executive.

(Source: Gazetteer of District Jaunpur)