A chief commissioner is a

commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to incl ...

of high rank, usually in chief of several commissioners or similarly styled officers.

Colonial

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

the gubernatorial style was chief commissioner in various (not all) provinces (often after being an entity under a lower ranking official), the style being applied especially where an elected assembly did not exist, notably: * Ajmer-Merwara 1 April 1871 – 15 August 1947 (the last date being the independence of India as a dominion, ending the colonial

British raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

) *

Andaman and Nicobar Islands The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India comprising 572 islands, of which only 38 are inhabited. The islands are grouped into two main clusters: the northern Andaman Islands and the southern Nicobar Islands, separated by a ...

1872 – August 1945 *

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

1912 – 3 January 1921 *

Baluchistan Balochistan ( ; , ), also spelled as Baluchistan or Baluchestan, is a historical region in West and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. This arid region of de ...

19 June 1877 – 3 October 1947 *

Central Provinces and Berar The Central Provinces and Berar was a province of British India and later the Dominion of India which existed from 1903 to 1950. It was formed by the merger of the Central Provinces with the province of Berar, which was territory leased by the ...

13 March 1854 – 17 December 1920 *

Coorg Kodagu district () (also known by its former name Coorg) is an administrative district in the Karnataka state of India. Before 1956, it was an administratively separate Coorg State at which point it was merged into an enlarged Mysore State ...

10 April 1834 – 15 August 1947 *

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

1912 – 15 August 1947 *

North-West Frontier Province The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP; ) was a province of British India from 1901 to 1947, of the Dominion of Pakistan from 1947 to 1955, and of the Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Pakistan from 1970 to 2010. It was established on 9 November ...

9 November 1901 – 18 April 2010 * Panth-Piploda May 1942 – 15 August 1947 sole incumbent Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Walter Fendall Campbell KCIE (1894–1973) *

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

(first 1 April 1849 – 1853 under a board of administration) till 1 January 1858 (only sole incumbent John Laird Mair Lawrence)

Independent Commonwealth nations

Australia

On two occasions in the late 20th century, local elected government in the City of

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

was temporarily replaced by panels of commissioners headed by a chief commissioner. Chief commissioner is also a rank used by

Scouts Australia Scouts Australia is a trading name of The Scout Association of Australia, which is the largest scouting organisation in Australia, with over 50,000 Youth Program Participants, and is a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement. It ...

for the Adult Leader with operational control of Scouting in each State and Territory Branch. There is also a Chief Commissioner of Australia, a position which is more prestigious, although it carries less power. Also in the state of Victoria, the head of police force is, unlike all the other states and territories, a 'chief commissioner' – as opposed to a 'commissioner'. The reason for this is, during Victoria's pre-federation history, there was more than one commissioner in the colony, one metropolitan and one for the goldfields, hence an additional degree of seniority was introduced. The office of chief commissioner has remained since.

Mauritius - Rodrigues

The island of

Rodrigues Rodrigues ( ; Mauritian Creole, Creole: ) is a Autonomous administrative division, autonomous Outer islands of Mauritius, outer island of the Republic of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, about east of Mauritius. It is part of the Mascarene Isl ...

which is part of the

Republic of Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Agal� ...

has a chief commissioner since 12 October 2012 when the island was granted autonomy status. He/she is the head of the Rodrigues Regional Assembly.

India

In India the post of chief commissioner is in

Indian Revenue Service The Indian Revenue Service (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ), often abbreviated as IRS, is a civil service that is primarily responsible for tax collection, collecting and administering Direct tax, direct and indir ...

(IRS) i.e. Central Excise & Customs Department & Income Tax Department. Usually the chief commissioner is above 3 or 4 commissioners of C&CE or IT

Sources and references

WorldStatesmen

References

Gubernatorial titles {{Job-stub