Lawyer in Alipurduar

A district since 2014, a judgeship since 2023

Alipurduar was the Alipurduar subdivision of Jalpaiguri district until 25 June 2014, when it became the twentieth district of West Bengal. The courts did not separate at the same time. For almost nine years the civil and criminal courts sitting in Alipurduar town continued to function under the District Judge of Jalpaiguri. The District Judgeship of Alipurduar was carved out of the Jalpaiguri judgeship on 29 April 2023. On that day the court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate-I became the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Alipurduar, and the District Judge of Jalpaiguri held additional charge until the district received its first permanent District and Sessions Judge on 29 August 2023.

This history matters in practice. A suit or criminal case filed in Alipurduar before April 2023 may carry Jalpaiguri judgeship references in its old orders and certified copies, and an appeal filed before the split may have been heard at Jalpaiguri. Anyone collecting papers for an older case should check which judgeship's records hold them.

The judicial roots are older than the district. According to the judgeship's own history, munsif's powers were given to the Subdivisional Officer of Alipurduar in 1896, a special munsif was appointed for the subdivision in 1956, and a regular Munsif's court was set up in 1968 when the judiciary in West Bengal was separated from the executive.

Administratively the district has two municipalities, Alipurduar and Falakata, and six community development blocks: Alipurduar-I, Alipurduar-II, Falakata, Kalchini, Kumargram and Madarihat-Birpara. Its northern edge is the border with Bhutan, and the Jaigaon crossing lies within it.

The courts at Alipurduar

All courts of the judgeship sit in Alipurduar town (District Court, Alipurduar, PIN 736122). The judgeship states that ten courts function on the civil and criminal sides. Its published list of judges shows:

• the District and Sessions Judge;
• Additional District and Sessions Judges, 1st and 2nd Courts, and two Additional District Judges (Fast Track Courts);
• a Civil Judge (Senior Division) and a Civil Judge (Junior Division), before whom civil suits are filed according to their value;
• the Chief Judicial Magistrate, an Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate and Judicial Magistrates, who hear criminal cases, maintenance applications under section 144 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), Domestic Violence Act applications and cheque-dishonour complaints; and
• the Juvenile Justice Board.

Matrimonial suits, sessions trials and appeals from the magistrates and civil judges are heard at the district judge level in the same town. There is no court at Falakata, Birpara, Jaigaon or Kalchini; every case from the district is heard in Alipurduar.

Which magistrate takes which police station

Criminal cases are allotted to a magistrate by police station. The judgeship's published list divides the district's police stations as follows:

Magistrate (Alipurduar)	Police stations
Chief Judicial Magistrate	Alipurduar (with Alipurduar Women PS and Cyber Crime PS), Kumargram, Samuktala, Kalchini
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate	Jaigaon, Madarihat, Birpara, Falakata

So an FIR registered at Birpara or Falakata will normally come up before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, while one from Alipurduar town or Kalchini goes to the Chief Judicial Magistrate. Allocation lists are revised from time to time, and the current cause list is the final word.

Birpara and Jateswar

Birpara is a census town in the Madarihat-Birpara block, in the tea-growing western part of the district, with its own police station. Birpara has no court of its own. Criminal cases from Birpara police station go to the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate at Alipurduar, and civil suits concerning property in the Birpara area are filed before the civil judges at Alipurduar. Matters typical of the area include disputes over land and homesteads in and around tea gardens, criminal cases arising on the national highway, and service matters of plantation, school and government employees.

Jateswar is a census town in the Falakata block, which has two gram panchayats bearing its name, Jateswar I and Jateswar II. The whole block is served by Falakata police station, so criminal cases from Jateswar are also listed before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate at Alipurduar. A land suit concerning Jateswar property is likewise an Alipurduar civil court matter, not a Jalpaiguri one.

From Alipurduar to the Circuit Bench

High Court work from Alipurduar district is filed at the Circuit Bench in Jalpaiguri rather than the principal seat in Kolkata. It typically includes:

• Civil appeals: first appeals under section 96 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC) from decrees of the District Judge or an Additional District Judge where the appeal lies to the High Court, and second appeals under section 100 CPC from appellate decrees of the district court. The limitation period for an appeal to the High Court is ninety days from the decree (Article 116, Limitation Act, 1963), with the time taken to obtain a certified copy excluded.
• Civil revisions under section 115 CPC and petitions under Article 227 of the Constitution against interim orders of the Alipurduar courts.
• Criminal appeals under section 415 of the BNSS against convictions by the Sessions Judge or an Additional Sessions Judge at Alipurduar, ordinarily within sixty days (Article 115, Limitation Act), and criminal revisions under section 442 BNSS.
• Bail applications in the High Court under section 483 BNSS (commonly after the Sessions Judge at Alipurduar has said no), and anticipatory bail under section 482 BNSS.
• Quashing petitions under section 528 BNSS to end proceedings that are an abuse of process.
• Writ petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution against the district administration, police, municipalities, land and land-revenue offices, and government employers.

Matters handled

Satyajit Paul's work for Alipurduar district litigants is confined to the Circuit Bench and covers civil appeals and revisions, criminal appeals and revisions, bail and anticipatory bail, quashing petitions, writ petitions (including service and land-record matters), matrimonial appeals and transfer petitions, consumer and cheque-dishonour matters at the appellate stage, and legal drafting. Trial-court proceedings in Alipurduar are conducted by counsel practising there.

Getting from Alipurduar to Jalpaiguri

Going west along National Highway 27 through Falakata and Dhupguri, Alipurduar to Jalpaiguri is in the region of 95 to 110 km depending on the route taken, normally two to two and a half hours. A client is often not needed in court at every High Court hearing; documents can go ahead by WhatsApp or email and a time at the Jalpaiguri chamber fixed by phone.

Frequently asked questions

Figures on courts and police-station allotments reflect what the Alipurduar District Judgeship had published by October 2026; postings and allotments are revised periodically. Nothing here is advice on an individual dispute.