BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Thursday directed the state government to issue instructions to the Director General and Inspector General of Police to inform all police stations to make it mandatory to register FIRs in any jurisdiction, irrespective of the jurisdiction in which the crime has taken place. The court made it clear that the instructions should be issued to all police stations within a month, and also give wide publicity to the issue to create awareness among the public.
The division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Mohammad Nawaz issued this direction while disposing of the public interest litigation filed by advocate S Umapathi, seeking directions to implement the central government’s advisory. The court’s direction came in view of the advisory issued by the Centre in February 2014.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had made it clear that as per Section 154(1) of the CrPC, a police officer is duty-bound to register a case on the basis of such information disclosing a cognizable offence, and FIR has to be registered, irrespective of territorial jurisdiction. The MHA had also clarified that all states/Union Territories must ensure that FIRs are registered promptly and without any discrimination. These instructions were to be circulated among all departments and organisations.
In the advisory, the central government had also made it clear that Section 166-A of CrPC prescribes a penalty of imprisonment up to two years and also fine for non-registration of an FIR for an offence described under the said section, against erring officers. Referring to this provision, the court also indicated that the officers will be prosecuted if they failed to comply with the advisory.
Policy matter
However, the court said it cannot issued a direction to establish an ‘FIR Centre’ as it is a policy matter of the state government. The petitioner also prayed to the court to issue directions to the state to reopen an ‘FIR Centre’ in the city with all necessary infrastructure and facilities. The government had initiated the idea of ‘Zero FIR’ by establishing an FIR Centre in the city but it was closed down.