History

Kathua District was established in the year 1963. Kathua district is divided into 6 Talukas Mahanpur, Bani, Basholi, Billawar, Hiranagar, Kathua. Kathua District Judiciary department functions with 12 courts in these Talukas. Sri. M.K Tickoo was appointed as the first District & Sessions Judge of Kathua. In Kathua District Judiciary No. of Judicial Officers are 12 and No. of staff members are around 100. Kathua District is one of the 20 administrative Districts that comprise the UT of Jammu and Kashmir. It is surrounded by Jammu to the north-west, the Doda and Udhampur Districts to the north, the State of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Punjab to the south and Pakistan’s working boundary to the west. Though there is no detailed and fully documented history of Kathua District, there is a belief that Jodh Singh, a Rajput of the Andotra clan migrated from Hastinapur to Kathua nearly 2,000 years ago and settled here. The three hamlets of Taraf Tajwal, Taraf Manjali and Taraf Bhajwal were by the same account established by his three sons Teju, Kindal and Bhaju. Tracing their ancestry to these three were the groups, now known respectively as Tajwalia, Bhajwalia and Khanwalia Rajputs, of the Andotra sub-caste. The conglomeration of these three hamlets was loosely called “Kathai” in earlier times which with the passage of time came to be called as Kathua.