In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said registration of FIR in cognisable offences is mandatory and that strict action must be taken against policemen who refuse to abide by the rules. “We hold that the registration of FIR is mandatory and no preliminary inquiry is permissible in cognisable offences,” a five-judge constitution bench headed by chief justice P Sathasivam said.
Under a cognisable offence, the police can arrest an accused without a warrant. Such offences attract a punishment of three years or more in case of conviction. They can be bailable as well as non-bailable.
The Supreme Court bench — which also comprised justices BS Chauhan, Ranjan P Desai, Ranjan Gogoi and SA Bobde — however, added a rider that if a complainant prima facie does not disclose a cognisable offence, the investigating officer is entitled to conduct an inquiry to ascertain whether the complaint constitutes a cognisable offence. Such a preliminary inquiry should not take more than a week.
The bench clarified that the preliminary inquiry can be conducted in certain matters only to determine if there was cognisable element in complaints relating to matrimonial family disputes, commercial offences, cases of medical negligence, corruption cases and cases of abnormal delay in lodging the complaint.
The constitution bench gave its verdict after a three-judge bench referred the case to the larger bench on the ground that there were conflicting judgments on the issue.
The court’s direction came on a reference by a bench headed by justice Dalveer Bhandari in February 2012 in a kidnapping case of a minor girl in Uttar Pradesh. Her mother moved the court challenging the refusal of the police to register an FIR on the basis of a complaint against the kidnappers.
Welcome move
Legal experts have welcomed the ruling. “The Supreme Court suggested a few riders which take care of abuse of law,”
said advocate Majeed Memon. SC advocate Kunal Cheema said: “The judgment will help probe crimes which are put under the wraps.”
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