DHARMASHASTRA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

CRIMINAL LAW – II

ANALYSIS OF FIR: Collection of FIR from a police station and its

analysis in the given format

Submitted To: Submitted By:

Mr. Gautam Gupta Lav Vyas

(Assistant Professor of Law) Bal/052/2018

Mr. Ashutosh Singh

(Assistant Professor of Law)

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to our Vice Chancellor Mr. Balraj
Singh Chauhan, our HOD Mr. VS Gigimon as well as our subject teacher Mr. Gautam Gupta
and Mr. Ashutosh Singh who gave me the golden opportunity to do this wonderful project on
the topic Collection of FIR from a police station and its analysis in the given format which
helped me in doing a lot of Research and I came to know about so many new things. I am
really thankful to them.

Secondly I would also like to thank my colleagues and partners in this project who helped in
finalizing this project within this frame.

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 INDEX

ACKNOWELDGEMENT....................................................................................1

INDEX....................................................................................................................2

INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................3

I. Research Objective......................................................................................4

II. Research Questions.....................................................................................4

III. Project Outline.........................................................................................4

ANALYSIS OF THE DOCUMENT..............................................................................5

CONCLUSION AND ANALYSIS................................................................................7

Annexure..............................................................................................................9

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 INTRODUCTION

A First Information Report is a document prepared by police officer. FIR can only be lodged
in the case of cognizable offence. In a matter of non-cognizable offence report is filed after
which the police take the permission of the magistrate to issue a warrant. FIR as under
Section 154 (1) reads: Every information relating to the commission of a cognizable offence,
if given orally to an officer in charge of a police station, shall be reduced to writing by him or
under his direction, and be read over to the informant; and every such information, whether
given in writing or reduced to writing as aforesaid, shall be signed by the person giving it,
and the substance thereof shall be entered in a book to be kept by such officer in such form as
the State Government may prescribe1. FIR can be filed by a victim against whom the offence
has been committed or any person who has seen or knows about commission of a cognizable
offence or any police officer who comes to know about the commission of such an offence. If
we go to a police station which does not have jurisdiction for the offence then it registers a
Zero FIR. This is to protect people’s right; the victim can file his complaint in any police
station for any offence for a quick action and later the case can be transferred to the
concerned police station thereafter. If a police officer refuses to lodge you FIR then you can
either file it online or go to a senior officer or can complaint to a Metropolitan Magistrate
under Sec 156 (3) ‘Any Magistrate empowered under section 190 may order such an investigation
as above-mentioned’2. Therefore no police officer can refuse to lodge a FIR unless the
information provided is very vague. FIR is a very important document as it contains the First
information about the crime; also it helps the police in conducting further investigation and
preparing a report which is then given to the court and a good investigation helps a lot to the
court in conducting a trial and delivering a judgment. Therefore it holds a important value in
the path of criminal justice.

1
Code of Criminal Procedure, Section 154 (1), 1973.

2
Code of Criminal Procedure, Section 156 (3), 1973.

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 I. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

The main objective of the project was to get familiar with the document. As we are studying
procedural law this semester. Filing an FIR is the first step for the criminal proceedings paths.
The objective was to get complete knowledge about the document, how to file an FIR, what
later actions are taken after an FIR is filed. To know what is the importance of this document
and is the police takes the further action after filing an FIR.

II. RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The Research question which I have framed for my project is

1. Whether a Telephonic Message or a Telephonic call can be counted as an FIR.

2. If two different people files same FIR at two different stations then which one will be
admissible.

3. Whether every detail needs to be filled out as given in the FIR format.

4. Whether any confession made by the accused filing an FIR is admissible in the Court.

III. PROJECT OUTLINE

For the project I had to visit a police station. I went to a police station in Bapunagar,
Ahmedabad. There I had a talk with the police officer over there Narendra Vaghela. He
answered to all my questions and query regarding FIR. He provided me with a copy of the
FIR but refused to certify saying they are not allowed to do so and instructed by their senior
police officer. Over there I asked the police officer few question regarding the topic and he
helped to complete my project. Later I did an extensive research on the same which helped
me in completing my project. The project analysis the document and answers the research
questions with the help of the answer received at the police station and by case laws.

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 ANALYSIS OF THE DOCUMENT

I collected a certified copy of an FIR from a police station. An FIR contains the name of the
police station, date and time of occurrence, name and residence of the informant, brief
description of offence with section, name & address of the criminal, steps taken regarding
investigation. At the end of the information there is signature or thumb impression of the
informant. Also there is a pledge at the end of the FIR which says that all the information
provided is authentic and believed to be true. The above document is given to the informant
and due to some circumstance the informant is not able to take the copy with him then the
police authorities need to mail the same to him. The FIR which I collected is in Gujarati as it
being the regional language of the region. Also the Delhi High Court has instructed to avoid
using Urdu or Persian as a language while filing FIR so that it would be easy to convert it
into Hindi or English. The document is written by the officer himself under his direction. But
later it was told to me by the officer in charge of the police station that the time of
commission or who committed it, is not an essential part of the FIR. The police officers are
not legally bound to provide an FIR copy to any other person expect for the Informant and
the accused.

Regarding this I asked few questions to the police officer. I asked whether a telephonic
message can be counted as a FIR. He said that in most of the cases they do not take it as an
FIR rather ask the informant to come to the police station and report the same but if they feel
it is a matter of grave importance then they count telephonic message as an FIR. On my
further research I came to know that even on a telephonic message an FIR can be recorded so
as to initiate investigation3. But if a cryptic message did not disclose the nature of offence or
by somebody who does not disclose his identity may not satisfy the requirement of section
154 of CRPC4. A cryptic message recording an occurrence cannot be termed as a First
Information Report. In order for a message or communication to be qualified to be first
information report, there must be something in the nature of complaint or accusation or at
least some information of the crime given with the object of setting the police or criminal law

3
Balgopal Panda v The State, 1990 Cr LJ 1848.

4
Ramesh Baburao Devaskar v. State of Maharashtra, (2007) 13 SCC 501.

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in motion. It is not necessary that the first information report should contain the minutest
detail or the names of offenders or the witnesses. But it must contain some information about
the crime committed as also some information about the manner in which the cognizable
offence was committed5. Also I asked that whether a message can be counted as an FIR. The
officer had no idea about it. In my research I found that a telegram sent is not an FIR6 .
But a telephone message may be recorded as an FIR7.

I also asked the officer over there that in a case where at different time and different person
report an FIR for the same event then which one is taken into account. The officer did not
know how to respond to the same and let go the question by saying that they have faced such
a situation before and even if they face so then they would not take into the account the later
FIR and would consider only the first one. On doing further research I came to know that
where there is more than one FIR, the first in point of time which persuaded the police officer
to start investigation is the FIR within section 154, and all others are hit by section 161 8. The
first information report is the earliest officer report made to the police 9. Where information is
given to the police at two different places by two different persons, and one is earlier in point
of time, the later report is independent first information and cannot be excluded as being hit
by section 16210.

I asked the officer whether it is necessary to fill out every detail as given in the FIR format.
The officer said that it is not necessary to fill out every detail in the FIR as the informant
sometimes might not know about the complete information and given false information just
to fill the format of the FIR would create a problem therefore it is not necessary to fill every
detail in the FIR. On my further I also find that in many cases even the court has said that
every detail of the FIR needs not to be filled. FIR is not the encyclopedia in which all details

5
Patai v State of UP, AIR 2010 SC 2254.

6
Sailendra Kumar Roy Choudhury v Territory of Tripura, AIR 1959 Mani 11

7
Chandrama Prasad Chamar v State, AIR 1955 NUC 1066

8
Vijay Shankar v State of MP, 1989 MPLJ 276

9
Somabhai v State of Gujarat, AIR 1975 SC 1453

10
Magan Lal v Emperor, AIR 1946 Nag 173

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should be given11. It is neither customary nor necessary to mention every minute detail in
FIR12

I asked whether confession given to police by the accused while doing their investigation is
admissible in the court and whether it needed to be mentioned in their report. The officer said
that confession made to the police is not admissible in the court of law. On doing further
research I found that the courts expect that the confessional part to be excluded 13. The Privy
Council observed that it is important to compare the story told by the accused at the trial with
what he said in his report to the police as FIR. The report is clearly admissible; it is in a sense
a confession and as such it is evidence against him14.

11
Ashok Kumar v State, 2008 Cr LJ (NOC) 882 (Uttra).

12
Podda Narayana v State of AP, AIR 1975 SC 1252.

13
Mohammada v Emperor, AIR 1948 Lah 19

14
Dal Singh, AIR 1917 PC 25

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 CONCLUSION AND ANALYSIS

After visiting police station and doing extensive research on the same my conclusion is that

police officer themselves do not have the perfect knowledge about FIR and try to misuse their

power. We have seen that many a times police officer reject taking information stating that

the place of commission is out of their jurisdiction but according to law they have to lodge a

Zero FIR which can later be transferred to the respective police station. Police officers are not

expected to know about court judgements or case laws but they should at least know the on

goings related to their work. As an example we can see that how the police officer which I

met had no idea that telephonic or telephone messages can be taken as an FIR. From this I

could also find the answer to my research question. Further I would like to conclude that not

much action is taken when an FIR is lodged. On my visit to the police station I saw an

informant giving information for the FIR but no further action was being taken by the police

officer while the court says that when an information is received by an officer-in-charge of

Police Station, he is expected to reach the place of occurrence as early as possible. It is not

necessary for him to take that step only on the basis of a first information report. Duty of the

State to protect the life of an injured as also an endeavor on the part of the responsible Police

Officer to reach the place of occurrence is his implicit duty and responsibility 15. Just writing

an FIR does not fulfill the duty of the police officer but it is the first step towards completing

his duty. A police officer is expected to do a good investigation and provide a report to the

court which would help in delivering of justice but if the first step towards the path of justice

itself is not fulfilled then we cannot expect the that path to be completed. On the basis of my

research and findings I would suggest that police should try to take the earliest possible

action after writing an FIR mere writing of an FIR does not fulfill their duty but working

upon the same does and would also help the courts if they provide with a good investigation

report.

15
Animireddy Venkata Ramana v Public Prosecutor, AIR 2008 SC 1603

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ANNEXURE

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