If police refuses to register your FIR then what to do ?

If police refuses to register your FIR

then what to do ?

Its a very common phenomenon

that people are saying that police

is not lodging their FIR. Even

sometimes people are ill-treated by

the police.

If Police officer concerned (SHO),

refuses to Register complaint/FIR,

than by virtue of section 154(3), of CRPC awritten Complaint may be send by

Post to the Superintendent of

Police (SP) or the Commissioner of

Police (in Metropolitan areas); If

Superintendent of Police or the

Commissioner of Police (in

Metropolitan areas) is satisfied

that the Complaint discloses

cognizable offence, he may himself

investigate the case or cause the

investigation of the case by any

Police officer subordinate to him.

Even after that if no any action

has been taken then an

application can be made under

section 156(3) read with section

190 of Code of Criminal Procedure

to a judicial Magistrate/

Metropolitan Magistrate thereby

praying that police to register the

FIR., investigate the case, file

charge-sheet or report.

A Writ Petition in the respective

High Court may be filed for the

issuance of Writ of Mandamus

against the defaulting Police

officers, inter alia, to Register the

FIR and directing him to show

cause (a) why he has not registered

the FIR; (b) why disciplinary

proceedings for "Misconduct"

should not be initiated against him

for dereliction of duty; (c) why he

should not be suspended from

Police service for interfering in

the administration of justice and

shielding the accused person.

You can file an online complaint,

find relevant information and also

get the contact details of each

State's own Human Rights

Commission office on the website

of the National Human Rights

Commission http://nhrc.nic.in.

Refusing to register an FIR on

jurisdictional ground could now

cost a policeman a year in jail.

Taking strong view of increasing

instances of such acts by police in

various states, the Union home

ministry has issued strict

instructions to all states to not only

initiate departmental inquiry

against such cops but also

prosecute them under Indian

Penal Code.

The home ministry told the states

and Union Territories to clearly

instruct all police stations that

failure to register FIR on receipt of

information about any cognizable

offence will invite prosecution of

the duty police officer under I.P.C.

Section 166A (government official

disobeying law) which will invite

imprisonment up to one year.

In its latest directive, the MHA told

the states and UnionTerritories that policemen

should be sensitized to respond to

complaints with alacrity, whether

it is from man or woman, and

must apprehend the accused

immediately after the complaint,

as it adversely impacts the victim

and there is tendency of persons

committing crimes to slip away

when there is delay on extraneous

grounds like jurisdiction.

WHAT IS A ZERO FIR ?

Zero FIR (Zero First Information Report) means that a FIR can be registered in any Police Station, on receipt of complaint, irrespective of its territorial jurisdiction and the same can be transferred later to the appropriate Police Station After collection of evidences by Police.

In online banking fraud or credit card fraud or any sim exchange like mobile frauds or any cyber crimes , this is a useful tool as you may be in another state or city away from home and you come to know about the fraud and reporting to police is important from compliance and arresting further fraud point of view. Then Zero FIR serves the immediate purpose.

(Appropriate police station is one within whose local jurrisdiction the offence actually taken place) For example an offence of Murder took place at some area which comes under the jurisdiction of Police Station Agra city. The person who saw the deadbody at Lucknow Highway area approached the nearest Police Station at Lucknow and informed the same. In such a situation police incharge of Lucknow City police Station cannot excuse themselves saying that the case does not fall within their jurisdiction and it falls within the jurrisdiction of Agra City Police Station. They should take immediate action (like collecting samples, getting information from eye witnesses, etc.). Later the case will be transferred to Agra city police Station. ZERO FIR can be filed at any police station – even if you are far off from the place of incident and you may/ may not be sure of the correct jurisdiction? Place where the offence actually taken place? There are provisions to do so and the same can be transferred to the appropriate police station limits when these are available. Such an FIR is called the Zero FIR! However, there are chances that the police station you visit may plead unawareness of such a concept.You should still report an FIR for the record the evidences need to be collected in very short span like blood samples, port martem Report and statement of eye witnesses etc. are required to be collected immediately otherwise it may gets destroyed or tampered by Offenders.

Why Zero FIR is needed?

Incidents like accident, murder, continuous fraud and rape require immediate action from the concerned authorities and rush to take CCTV footage, computer logs, samples, getting information from eye witnesses and getting circumstantial details. A Zero FIR helps to take note of this initial action regardless of trying to figure out in which limits or territorial jurrisdiction the crime / offence took place.

Case Laws; 

1.Satvinder Kaur vs Govt. of NCT of Delhi on 5/10/1999 (AIR 1999, 1031)• 

2.Ramesh Kumari vs Govt. of NCT Delhi on 21/2/2006.

Advocate Prashant Mali

High Court Lawyer, Mumbai

9821763157