History

About Ballari Court

The Courts of Divani and Fouzadari Adalaths were introduced in Madras area; since it was introduced by the then Governor of Madras, Lord Cornwallis, it was known as Cornwallis system.
In Ballari, these courts were established in the Cantonment area, where the Tahsildar Office and Military-contract awarding Office were also functioning, and thus it can be said that the functioning of the courts were modernized in a way, from 1801 onwards.
The criminal Courts, Viz, The session Courts, the assistant sessions Judge Court and the Magistrate Court were introduce under sections 9,10 and 11 respectively respectively under criminal procedure code 1860.
On 01.03.1873, a three tier system of Courts of District Judge, Subordinate judge and Munsiff court to cater to Civil cases were established, to settle civil disputes.
The magnificent building housing the District and Sessions Judge, at Ballari, in the present location was constructed in 1874, the labour force for this purpose comprised mostly of the convicts undergoing imprisonment in the local central jail. Some of them were given remission in their sentences for their labor.
At some time, there was a common sub court of Ballari and selam, there were Munsiff’s court at Kampli, Kottur, ND.Kere, Adoni, Gooty and Parigi. Until 1980, the District Court here had jurisdiction over the courts in the then Anantapur District also. The jurisdiction of Ballari district Court was over the revenue district of Ballari consisting of taluks of Adoni, Alur, Ballari, Siruguppa, Raydurg, Hospet, Kudligi, Harapanahalli and Hadagali.
The state of Sandur, where its highest judicial officer was called Nyayadish, was merged with Ballari district.
With the formation of “Andhra State” on 01.10.1953, the talukas including Ballari were merged with the then Part-B state of Mysore. From 01.11.1956, this district is the part of the new state of Mysore, now Karnataka.