Police must register FIR for every complaint

Hyderabad: It is mandatory for the police to register an First Information Report (FIR) if a complainant approaches. If Police personnel refuses to register a complaint and shows discrimination. Action must be taken against erring officers. They would be punished under Section 166 (A) of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) who do not register the FIR.

MHA Joint Secretary Kumar Alok asked police to accept all complaints and not deny citizens an opportunity if a complaint is related to the jurisdiction of other police station.He wrote in the letter, “As per section 154 (1) of CrPC, a police officer is duty bound to register a case on the basis of such information disclosing a cognizable offence and FIR has to be registered irrespective of territorial jurisdiction.”

“National Commission for Minorities in its annual report (2011-12) has recommended prompt action in registration of FIRs; timely filing of charge sheet and registration of FIR is the first step in the whole process.

Therefore, all States and union territories must ensure that utmost promptness in registering FIRs is extended to all those who approach the police for registration of FIRs without any discrimination of whatever kind,” he stated in the letter.

He also referred to a judgment given by Supreme Court responding to a writ petition filed in 2008. “The court was quite perturbed about the burking of crime registration and has concluded that non-registration of crime leads to dilution of rule of law and thus leads to definite lawlessness in the society, which is detrimental to the society as whole.

It has called for action against erring officer who do not register an FIR if information received by the complainant discloses the commission of a cognizable offence. It may be mentioned that section 166A of CrPC prescribes a penalty of imprisonment up to two years and also fine for non-registration of FIR for an offence described in the section,” he said.

The Supreme Court directed the police officers that they has the power to conduct a “preliminary inquiry” in order to test the veracity of the information before registering and the preliminary inquiry should be time-bound and not take more than one week.