Administrative History

The South District (now Namchi district) has a Administrative District, as its beginning, only from 1963. Before that it was a part of West Zone (region) as Sikkim State was divided in two administrative zone – East zone and West zone. Every zone was under the control of Revenue Officer appointed by Chogyal(the then king) of Sikkim and the administration of justice was in the hand of Tribal Authority like Zonepal at the district, Zone level, Yaplas Feudal Landlord, Pipon(head men), Mandal head etc. The revenue of the land used to be collected and augmented by the Yaplas to deposit in states khazana which was most of the time in terms of food grain and some agriculture based articles.

The concept of district, first time appeared only in the year 1963 when East zone was bifurcated from the East and North District and the West zone was in West District and the South District. Hence the South District came into existence as a modern administrative district only in 1963 by an order of the king on 1st April 1963 and Mr. R.B. Mukhia was appointed as first District Officer of the south District. The District Officer was given all administrative power on behalf of the king though the authority of Zonepal and Yaplas was still prevailing. In 1973 the term District Collector was used first time for the District Officer. Mr. P.K. Pradhan is believed to be first District Collector of South District.

Sikkim Darbar Gazettee Notification No 3/H (PDF 97.4 KB)

After the merger of Sikkim in India the District Collector was designated as District Magistrate and the District Collector was conferred with the powers provided in criminal procedures of 1898. Mr. Mingma Tshering was the first Collector and District Magistrate of the South District. The order of Precedence of the District Officer, District Collectors and District Magistrates is as follows: