While considering under Section 32 of Constitution of India in
Criminal Writ Petition no. 68 of 2008 titled Lalita Kumari Vs. State of UP
& Ors. as to 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, 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?” and in view
of the conflicting decisions of Supreme Court on the issue, larger bench (5
Judge Bench) of the Supreme Court held that
(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.
