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

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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

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