The Gazetteers Department

The District and Sessions Judge is the head of the Judicial department in the district. The judiciary is entirely separated from the executive. The collector continues to be the District Magistrate and the Deputy collectors and Tahsildars are vested with magisterial powers. But those powers are limited to security proceedings under Sections 107, 108, 109. cases of local nuisance under Section 133 and cases as regards disputes of lands under Sections 145, 146 and 147 of the Criminal Procedure Code and none of them ever tries any criminal case The District Magistrate does not have any administrative control over the other magistrates who try criminal cases in the district. This separation of the judiciary from the executive was brought about in the district in the year 1959.

The District and Sessions Judge is assisted by one Additional Sessions Judge. He has jurisdiction over the entire district. He attends to civil and criminal cases, both original and appellate.

There are three Civil Judges of the Senior Division, two of them having headquarters at Akola and the third at Washim. They attend to special and regular suits in their respective jurisdictions. They also deal with cases under Co-operative Societies Act, suits under the Hindu Marriage Act, cases under Parts VII. IX and X of the Indian Succession Act, insolvency cases under the Trust Act, cases under the Workmen's Compensation Act and cases under the Central Provinces and Berar Industrial Disputes Settlement Act.

There are five Civil Judges of the Junior Division, two of them having headquarters at Akola, and the other three at Akot, Murtizapur and Mangrulpir, respectively. They deal with regular civil suits of the value of subject matters below Rs. 10,000 and cases under Payment of Wages Act arising within their respective jurisdictions. There is also one Judicial Magistrate, First Class at Akola. He is empowered to try criminal cases under the Motor Vehicles Act and Motor Vehicles Taxation Act.

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