In case of Lalita Kumari Vs. Govt.
of U.P. & Ors.[Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 68 of 2008 decided on 12-11-13
] (2014) 1 SCC (Cri) 524 the Honourable Supreme Court
cleared the confusion on the point of
Regsitration of FIR when an offence is reported
in the police station and issued following guidelines:-
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
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c.
Medical negligence cases
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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.
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