susceptibilities are wounded. In country, and to people, such as these, much of the ordinary law of the land is unsuited, and a special system has consequently been introduced.
A precedent existed in the case of the Agencies of Vizagapatam and Ganjám, In consequence of the unceasing turbulence in them which led at length to the appointment, in 1832, of a Special Commissioner, with special powers, to restore order, these two tracts were excluded, by Act XXIV of 1839, from the operation of much of the ordinary law and were placed under the direct administration of the Collectors of those districts, who were endowed with special and extraordinary powers within them in their capacity as 'Agents to the Governor.'
A similar method of administration was extended to the greater part of the present Gódávari Agency in 1879, advantage being taken of the Scheduled Districts Act (India Act XIV of 1874) to constitute an Agency in the then Bhadráchalam and Rékapalle taluks, which make up the present Bhadráchalam taluk, and 'the Rampa country,' which is practically the present Chódavaram division.
The Agency thus formed has been three times extended; namely, in 1881, when the muttas of Dutcharti and Guditeru (now in Yellavaram division) were transferred to it from the Vizagapatam Agency; in 1883,1[1] when the villages of the resumed mansab of Jaddangi and large portions of the Pólavaram division were added; and in 1891,2[2] when the Pólavaram and Yellavaram divisions attained substantially their present shape.
In the Agency thus constituted the Collector of the district, in his capacity as Government Agent, is both District Magistrate and District and Sessions Judge; the tahsildar and Deputy tahsildars have minor civil jurisdiction within their respective charges, corresponding (with certain modifications) to that of district munsifs; and the Agency Deputy Collector of Pólavaram and the Divisional Officer at Bhadráchalam, in their capacity as Assistant Agents, hear appeals from them and have powers similar to those of Subordinate Judges. The tahsildars and deputy tahsildars (and the taluk sarishtadar at Bhadráchalam) are second-class magistrates, and the Divisional Officers, as elsewhere, are first-class magistrates; but appeals from the decisions of the latter lie to the Collector as Agency Sessions Judge. The village munsifs have the ordinary crimmal, but no civil, powers. The
