Photo albums of administrative offices

Khanom District Office, Nakhon Si Thammarat

For some time I already had started with uploading my photos of the various administrative offices on various web 2.0 sites, but never made it a systematically and complete yet, and never could decide which one to use - Picasa, Panoramio or Flickr, or also Wikimedia Commons. But as with the start of Google+ (thanks to Rikker I am online there already) Picasa effectively dropped their quota and made all images of less than 2048 pixel free - so I can now use that image storage without ever worry about running out of space. I have already uploaded some new photos to the albums below, but still have to go through my archive to complete the albums.

Province Halls	ศาลากลาง	Album
District Office	ที่ว่าการอำเภอ	Album
Province Court	ศาลจังหวัด	Album
Municipal and TAO offices	สำนักงานเทศบาล/สำนักงานอบต	Album
PAO offices	สำนักงานอบจ	Album
City Pillar Shrines	หลักเมือง	Album

The photos are all cc-by-sa, the same license as photos on Wikipedia. So anyone can reuse them, only have to give credit to me as the photographer. And also can upload them to Wikipedia, as I somehow never find the time and mood to fill the more and more bureaucratic forms for a simple upload of a self-created photo.

Bueng Kan judiciary area

With its announcement in the Royal Gazette on May 23rd, the area of jurisdiction of the provincial court Bueng Kan (ศาลจังหวัดบึงกาฬ) has been adjusted to the boundaries of the newly created province [Gazette]. Though actually, no adjustment was needed, as the original creation of the provincial court in 1991 listed the same area, only that there were just 5 districts at that time which in the meantime had been split into eight.

Additionally, a juvenile and family court was established for Bueng Kan [Gazette]. And also the other two acts published on that day deal with the judiciary areas and Bueng Kan - the list of the provinces of the appeal court has been extended accordingly [Gazette], same as in the amendment to the criminal procedure act of 2520 [Gazette].

Change of area of provincial court Chaiya

As the provincial courts (ศาลจังหวัด) not necessarily are responsible for a whole province - some of the larger provinces have more than one provincial court - their area of responsibility can occasionally change as well. On November 25, an announcement was published in the Royal Gazette which changed the area of responsibility for the provincial court Chaiya, in the northwest of the province Surat Thani [Gazette].

The province of Surat Thani is in fact divided into four judiciary areas, Chaiya covering the northwest, Ko Samui covering the islands to the northeast, Surat Thani itself the central area. Another court for the southern area located in Wiang Sa has been announced in 2007, but not yet opened, but I have included it into the map already as the first announcement already lists the districts to be covered. Ko Samui is also rather new, it was created in 1996 and opened in 2006. Chaiya is much older, it was created and opened in 1947.

The change in area announced now is the reassign of Vibhavadi district from the authority of Surat Thani court to Chaiya. When Chaiya court was created in 1947, the area of that district was still part of Khirirat Nikhom district, and the announcement states on its last page that this change of area was made possible since Vibhavadi was elevated to a full district in 2007.

Administrative offices in Ranong

Since Ranong is a rather small provincial capital, the main administrative offices are not spread too much, and their original locations not becoming too cramped that a newly built government center needs to be built to replace the nice old buildings.

City pillar shrine

The tour starts at the city pillar shrine, which I have covered in detail on my travel blog. Directly across the street is the municipal administration of the town Ranong (เทศบาลเมืองระนอง). On the Google map below it only shows the old office building, but directly next to it a new more representative one was built. As the current imagery on Google is from 2006, it is one of the many local administrative buildings built very recently.

Old municipality office

New municipality office

The province hall (Sala Klang) is located on top of a hill, and though it is rather old it still looks very much like the province halls in other provinces. While the building itself did not catch much of my attention, I much more enjoyed the fence at the small parking lot with the provincial seal inside, and a small park with a statue, I think it shows King Chulalongkorn.

Province hall

Province court

Down the hill again one reaches the provincial court (ศาลจังหวัดระนอง), again a building in the standard style, so not the kind of building many people want to photograph. I still wonder why the guard at the entrance did not allow me to take a photo - but luckily he only told after I did the first photo already and was trying to find an alternative view. I never experienced any real security measures around the administrative offices - only at the three southernmost provinces troubled by the insurgence I could imagine the authorities to be more reluctant on photography.

District office

One the other side of the hill is the district office of the Mueang Ranong district (อำเภอเมืองระนอง). This is a really old building, mainly built by wood.

I sadly missed the office of the Provincial Administrative Organization (PAO), which I did not find on the map before. When I later found out that it was actually located just across Phetkasem road from the gas station we stopped anyway, if only I had know its location I could do a quick walk over there without the need to ask for another stop. Well, opportunity lost, for the next such visit I will try even harder to have all the locations on my map before. It will probably take many years till I have another chance to visit Ranong.




View Ranong administration in a larger map

New offices on Ko Samui

District office

While googeling to check if there are any new districts in the planning currently, the search term "อำเภอใหม่" (new district) did return me one article at the nathoncity website talking about the opening ceremony of the new district office for Ko Samui with deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban (สุเทพ เทือกสุบรรณ) leading the ceremony. I knew the district office is rather small and located in middle of Nathon town, so it would be feasible that a completely new building was constructed, so to keep my maps up to date I asked the blogger Camille on Samui to check it out for details.

He could directly deny that there is a new district office, the old one only had received a major reconstruction. Though I had been on Samui once several years ago, I did not take photos of the administrative offices at that time, so I asked him to do so when he has time and is in the area. Faster than expected, he did the tour and wrote about it in his blog.

Municipality

As you can notice in his posting, it turned out that the municipality Ko Samui had built a new office recently, located close to the old municipal office building. Actually a bit hidden, as Camille only noticed it this time despite driving past many times. As in most cases, within the municipal compound there's also the fire station, and the base station for the garbage collection trucks.

Not mentioned in his posting is the district office, about which he said it received some renovations, and also now has more parking space. If you take a close look at his photo placed in top of the posting, you'd notice that the sign actually says "Koh Samui District" - not following the RTGS transcription system usually used in the government offices. The recommended transcription in Ko Samui, but the spelling Koh for the Thai word "island" (เกาะ) is so widespread it seems the Royal Institute cannot eradicate it - same as Pattaya should actually be transcribed as Phatthaya.

And in fact there is even a third newly built administrative office, as the provincial court Ko Samui (ศาลจังหวัดเกาะสมุย)in the south of the island was opened only few years ago. I marked all three buildings in the map below, but note that the municipal building is hardly visible because it is located directly at the boundary between hires and just recently added medium resolution imagery, thus a bit blurred. And since the hires data is from 2003, there's obviously no trace of the new building in there.


View Samui administrative offices in a larger map

So, many thanks to Camille for providing me with the information as well as allowing me to use his photos for display here. Now whenever the special administrative area of Ko Samui gets closer to be set up I have at least a photo of the municipal office to decorate the posting.

Time between creation and opening of provincial courts

As the newspaper article on the creation of the provincial court Phra Pradaeng states that a second Royal act is necessary to actually open the new court, I have done a little bit of research in the Royal Gazette and found these acts now as well. They are titled "พระราชกฤษฎีกากำหนดวันเปิดทำการศาลจังหวัด" (royal act to set the date of opening operation of provincial court). Listing the five most recent ones shows that quite some time passes between the creation of the jurisdiction and the actual opening of the courthouse.

• Na Thawi, Songkhla, created in 1995, opened in 2007.
• Chai Badan, Lopburi, created in 1994, opened in 2007.
• Ko Samui, Surat Thani, created in 1996, opened in 2006.
• Thong Pha Phum, Kanchanaburi, created in 2004, opened in 2005.
• Nang Rong, Buriram, created in 1994, opened in 2002.

So, except for the case on Thong Pha Phum, it takes about 10 years between the creation of the jurisdiction and the actual opening of the courthouse. So the actual opening in Phra Pradaeng will be in 2020, unless the process is sped up a lot.

As it takes so long, there are also a total of eight already created provincial courts which still wait their actual opening. I have no idea on the actual progress on either of these courts or when they will be finished.

• Wichian Buri, Phetchabun (ศาลจังหวัดวิเชียรบุรี), created in 2007 (Gazette).
• Wiang Sa, Surat Thani (ศาลจังหวัดเวียงสระ), created in 2007 (Gazette).
• Chumphae, Khon Kaen (ศาลจังหวัดชุมแพ), created in 2007 (Gazette).
• Chiang Kham, Phayao (ศาลจังหวัดเชียงคำ), created in 2007 (Gazette).
• Phimai, Nakhon Ratchasima (ศาลจังหวัดพิมาย), created in 2007 (Gazette).
• Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan (ศาลจังหวัดหัวหิน), created in 2007 (Gazette).
• Hot, Chiang Mai (ศาลจังหวัดฮอด), created in 2009 (Gazette).
• Phra Pradaeng, Samut Prakan (ศาลจังหวัดพระประแดง), created in 2010 (Gazette).

Provincial court Phra Pradaeng created

As anticipated, now the second new provincial court has been officially created as well. Published on January 21, the announcement titled พระราชบัญญัติจัดตั้งศาลจังหวัดที่อำเภอพระประแดง จังหวัดสมุทรปราการ พ.ศ. ๒๕๕๓ officially created the new jurisdiction, becoming effective the day after publication.

As Richard Barrow found out, this does not mean that the new courthouse started operation already. The article in the Prachachat newspaper says that before starting operation it needs another royal act, until then all cases in the jurisdiction of the new court (i.e. the district Phra Pradaeng and Phra Samut Chedi) will still be handled by the provincial court Samut Prakan.

So, by this act the Ministry of Justice is entitled to build the new courthouse and hire the personal, the date it will actually start operation isn't publicly set yet.

New provincial courts

There are many more provincial courts than provinces in Thailand - a complete list seems to be found at tambol.com, however with expired links - and now yet another one has been created. Published in the Royal Gazette on December 18, a provincial court in Hot district was established, making it the third provincial court within Chiang Mai province.

• Chiang Mai (ศาลจังหวัดเชียงใหม่)
• Fang (ศาลจังหวัดฝาง)
• Hot (ศาลจังหวัดฮอด)

Additionally, there's the Juvenile and Family Court in Chiang Mai (ศาลเยาวชนและครอบครัวจังหวัดเชียงใหม่) - no weblink because the site is currently spreading malware.

And it seems Hot will not be only new provincial court to be established, as along with an announcement from May 2009 on the set up of a commission to draft the law, there was another commission dealing with the creation of the provincial court Phra Pradaeng (ศาลจังหวัดพระประแดง).

Judiciary system in 1904

After I wrote on the judiciary subdivision of the country, the corresponding section from The Kingdom of Siam: 1904 is interesting to compare, as it both describes the old system and the then newly established one.

The Ministry of justice is quite a recent creation, as previous to the year 1892 there were as many jurisdictions as departments, and each de­partment frequently tried cases concerning themselves either as defendants or plaintiffs. There were restrictions on their arbitrary powers, but these restrictions were often overridden by a powerful head of a department. The board in whose hands the decision of an appeal was sup­posed to lie were not strong enough to enforce any judgment affecting the department of a strong minister or against an influential nobleman. Be­sides the courts there existed what might be called the germ of a Ministry of Justice in the board named Lukkhun. This board dealt with cases which were not directly concerned with the departments and with any appeals which the departments were pleased to send to them. But they had no real power. The work of deciding cases was divided amongst different sets of officials. The actual recording of evidence was done by the Talakarn (or judges); the guilt or responsibility of the parties was decided on the records by the Lukkhun. The Pooprap, or officials, who were supposed to know the law, fixed the punishment or amount of judgment.

All judicial officials received only nominal salaries, and it can be well understood that chaos reigned supreme, and that justice was only likely to be done when money and influence were on the side of the plaintiff.

In the provinces the executive officers acted as judges, and could do pretty well as they pleased. In 1892 the Ministry of Justice was established, and all the judicial functions of the various depart­ments, with the exception of the military
and naval courts and the palace court, were consolidated under the control of a Minister of Justice. This change was confined to Bangkok at first, but in 1895 all the central provinces were brought under the same control. The outlying provinces of Petchaboon, Udawn, Isarn, and parts of the Malay States still remain as before, but ap­peal from the courts in these districts are now for­warded to the Appeal Court at Bangkok. It is intended to incorporate the whole of the interior gradually, as time and money will permit.

At present every province is divided into Muangs with a District Court (San Muang) capable of trying cases up to five thousand ticals in value
and criminal cases involving punishment not exceeding ten years imprisonment. An appeal lies to the Circle Court (San Monthon), established in the capital of each province. This court is capable of dealing with every kind of case, both civil and criminal, and the cases from the District Court and those entered originally in the Circle Court are subject to appeal to Bangkok. The Bangkok Ap­peal Court is in two divisions, one of five judges dealing with appeals from the provinces, and one of three dealing with appeals from Bangkok and from the provinces not yet incorporated under this ministry.

A final appeal lies to His Majesty the King, who has delegated his duties to the tribunal composed of five members commissioned under the Royal Sign Manual. This tribunal may be termed the Supreme Court of Appeal (San Dika).

Provincial Courts

When I earlier talked about the provincial halls, I also mentioned the provincial courts (ศาลจังหวัด, San Changwat) which are often located right next to the provincial hall, for example in Surat Thani (depicted). Yet when I passed through Talat Chaiya municipality, to my surprise I saw a provincial court there as well, named ศาลจังหวัดไชยา (San Changwat Chaiya). Though it is a provincial court, this does of course not mean that there is a province Chaiya, it's just that the province Surat Thani is so large that it is divided into several judiciary areas each having its own provincial court. As the website of the Office of the Judiciary explains

Provincial Courts exercise unlimited original jurisdiction in all general civil and criminal matters within their own districts which are generally the provinces themselves. For the purpose of expansion of services of the court to the distance area, some provinces may have more than one Provincial Court.

It seems that even myself fell into the trap of thinking the provincial court has something to do with provinces - in one of the first postings I speculated on a recreation of the province Lang Suan, but in fact that Royal Gazette announcement was about the provincial court in Lang Suan, and had nothing to do with a province hall as I suspected.

Within Surat Thani, my favourite province, it seems there are three provincial courts, one in Surat Thani city itself, one in Chaiya, and one on Ko Samui. But I haven't yet found a complete list of all the provincial (and municipal) courts with my limited Thai.