Administration of Nainital District is under the control of District Magistrate. The main activities of district administration include maintenance of Law and order, revenue administration, monitoring of development works and control over other government departments. For the administrative work District Magistrate is supported by a team of officers. Like for instance, for law and order by Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), for development works by Chief Development Officer (CDO) for revenue administration Additional District Magistrates and Sub-Divisional Magistrates, and for forest related work by District Forest Officers. The other activities of District Magistrate`s office include issuing and cancellation of arms licenses, keeping land records, registry work, and redressal of court cases related to lands. The common people put their grievances before the Collector and these are generally related to and taken care of by different departments. One section of the District Collector`s office looks after these public complaints and traces their answers from the concerned departments.

For administrative purpose, Nainital District is divided into five sub-divisions (Pargana) and eight Tehsils. Each subdivision is headed by a Sub Divisional Magistrate (Deputy Collector) and Tehsil by a Tehsildar. The sub-divisions of Nainital District are Nainital, Haldwani, Ramnagar, Dhari and Kosiyakutoli. Tehsils are Nainital, Haldwani, Ramnagar, Kaladhungi, Lalkuwa, Dhari, Kosiyakutoli and Betalghat. The administrative history of Nainital goes back to 1815 A.D. as per historical records.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) is the head of Police department in Nainital District. There are further breakups under different officers which include the City Superintendent of Police, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Circle Officers and Sub Inspectors under the SSP for the control of law and order in the district. Administration of Nainital District includes around thirteen Police Stations. In the hilly areas law and order work is looked after by revenue Patwaris. There are 2 fire service stations in the district one each at Nainital and Haldwani.

The revenue collection work is done by Tehsildars with the help of Naib Tehsildars, Amins and other Tehsil staffs. The other main work of Tehsils is to keep record of Land. Land record work is maintained by Patwaris at each Tehsil. Each Patwari is responsible for land records of his own circle having generally eight to ten revenue villages. There are 1093 revenue villages in Nainital District. A major portion of Nainital is covered with forests and for the management of this vast resource there is a setup of forest departments consisting of Conservator, District Forest Officers, Rangers, etc. For conserving forest based resources Van Panchayats have been organised in the district. There are around 400 Van Panchayats in Nainital District. Beside these departments, administration of Nainital District also includes several other departments such as Public Works Departments and Rural Engineering Service (RES) for government construction work and Social Welfare Department.