5-judge bench to hear FIR case

The Supreme Court has referred to a Constitution bench to decide a crucial legal question — is it mandatory for a police officer to register an FIR on receipt of a complaint of a cognisable offence or is a preliminary probe required prior to its registration.

The Supreme Court has referred to a Constitution bench to decide a crucial legal question — is it mandatory for a police officer to register an FIR on receipt of a complaint of a cognisable offence or is a preliminary probe required prior to its registration.

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A three-judge bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari, TS Thakur and Dipak Mishra said the issue needed to be settled by a Constitution bench in view of the fact that that there were “divergent” judgments by the apex court over the years.

The bench said while in some cases the SC had ruled that registration of an FIR was mandatory, in several other cases, it was held that the police officer had the discretion in registering an FIR as he can conduct a preliminary inquiry on the veracity of the complaint.