REPORTABLE
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CRIMINAL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION
1
WRIT PETITION (CRIMINAL) NO. 68 OF 2008
Lalita Kumari ....
Petitioner (s)
Versus
Govt. of U.P. & Ors. ....
Respondent(s)
2
WITH
S.L.P. (Crl.) No. 5986 of
2006
S.L.P. (Crl.) No. 5200 of 2009
3
CRIMINAL APPEAL No. 1410 OF 2011
4
5
CRIMINAL APPEAL No. 1267 OF 2007
AND
CONTEMPT PETITION (C) NO. D26722 OF 2008 IN
6
WRIT PETITION (CRIMINAL) NO. 68 OF 2008
Paras 1 , 110 and 111 of the Judgment
J U D G M E N T
P.Sathasivam, CJI.
1) The important
issue which arises for
consideration in the
referred
matter is whether
“a police officer
is bound to
register a First
Information
Report (FIR) upon
receiving any information
relating to
commission of a
cognizable offence under
Section 154 of
the Code of
Criminal Procedure, 1973 (in short ‘the Code’) or the
police officer has
the power to conduct a “preliminary inquiry” in order to
test the
veracity
of such information before registering the same?”
__________________________________________________________________
110) Therefore, in
view of various counter claims regarding
registration
or non-registration, what is necessary is only that the
information given
to the police must disclose the commission of
a cognizable offence.
In
such a situation, registration of an FIR
is mandatory. However,
if no
cognizable offence is made out in the information given,
then the FIR need
not be registered immediately and perhaps the police can
conduct a sort of
preliminary verification or inquiry for the limited purpose
of ascertaining
as to whether a cognizable
offence has been
committed. But, if the
information given clearly mentions the commission of a cognizable
offence,
there is no
other option but
to register an
FIR forthwith. Other
considerations are not relevant at the stage of
registration of FIR,
such
as, whether the information is falsely given, whether
the information is
genuine, whether the information is credible etc.
These are the
issues
that have to be verified during the investigation of the
FIR. At the stage
of registration of
FIR, what is
to be seen
is merely whether
the
information
given ex facie
discloses the commission
of a cognizable
offence. If, after
investigation, the information
given is found
to be
false, there is always an option to prosecute the
complainant for filing a
false FIR.
Conclusion/Directions:
111) In view of the
aforesaid discussion, we hold:
i) Registration
of FIR is mandatory under Section 154 of the Code, if
the
information discloses commission of a cognizable offence and no
preliminary inquiry
is permissible in such a situation.
ii) If the
information received does not disclose a cognizable offence
but indicates
the necessity for an inquiry, a
preliminary inquiry
may be
conducted only to ascertain whether
cognizable offence is
disclosed or
not.
iii) If the inquiry discloses the commission of
a cognizable offence,
the FIR must
be registered. In cases where preliminary inquiry ends
in closing the
complaint, a copy of the entry of such closure
must
be supplied to
the first informant forthwith and not later than one
week. It must disclose reasons in brief for closing
the complaint
and not
proceeding further.
iv) The police
officer cannot avoid his duty of registering offence if
cognizable
offence is disclosed. Action
must be taken
against
erring
officers who do not register the FIR if information received
by him
discloses a cognizable offence.
v) The scope of
preliminary inquiry is not to verify the
veracity or
otherwise of
the information received but only to ascertain whether
the
information reveals any cognizable offence.
vi) As to what
type and in which cases preliminary
inquiry is to be
conducted will depend on the facts and
circumstances of each case.
The category
of cases in which preliminary inquiry may be made are
as under:
a) Matrimonial
disputes/ family disputes
b) Commercial
offences
c) Medical
negligence cases
d) Corruption
cases
e) Cases
where there is
abnormal delay/laches in
initiating
criminal
prosecution, for example,
over 3 months
delay in
reporting the matter
without satisfactorily explaining
the
reasons for
delay.
The aforesaid
are only illustrations and not
exhaustive of all
conditions
which may warrant preliminary inquiry.
vii) While ensuring
and protecting the rights of the accused
and the
complainant, a
preliminary inquiry should be made time bound and in
any case it
should not exceed 7 days. The fact of
such delay and
the causes of
it must be reflected in the General Diary entry.
viii) Since the
General Diary/Station Diary/Daily Diary is the record of
all
information received in a police station, we
direct that all
information
relating to cognizable offences, whether
resulting in
registration
of FIR or leading to an inquiry, must
be mandatorily
and
meticulously reflected in the said Diary and
the decision to
conduct a
preliminary inquiry must also be reflected, as
mentioned
above.
112) With the above
directions, we dispose of the reference made
to us.
List all the matters before the appropriate Bench for
disposal on merits.
(P.
SATHASIVAM) ………………………………CJI.
(DR. B.S.
CHAUHAN) ....... J.
(RANJANA
PRAKASH DESAI)………………J.
(RANJAN
GOGOI)...J
(S.A.
BOBDE).....J
NEW DELHI;
NOVEMBER 12, 2013.
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