Complaints must turn FIRs, says Government

Faced with repeated public complaints on non-registration of cases by police, the Home Ministry has decided to issue a circular to all states asking them to ensure that all complaints received by police stations should be treated as FIRs.

It took the Haryana police nine years to register a first information report (FIR) in the Ruchika Girhotra molestation case.

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On Monday, the eve of her 16th death anniversary, the Home Ministry, in an effort to stop such delays, decided to ask the states and Union Territories to register all police complaints as FIRs.

“A circular asking states and Union Territories to ensure free registration of complaints as FIRs will be issued next week,” a ministry official said.

Once an FIR is filed, the police are legally compelled to investigate the charges.

As law and order is a state subject, registration of complaints as FIRs will be mandatory in Union Territories, which are under the ministry’s supervision. In states, the governments will have to issue directions to make the circular effective.

To make the circular work, the government has proposed amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure, making it mandatory for the police station in-charge to list a reason for registering or not registering an FIR after receiving a complaint.

policy on medals
The ministry has also decided to make the withdrawal of police medals of convicted personnel an automatic process — a fallout of former Haryana DGP S P S Rathore’s conviction in the Ruchika molestation case.

The ministry will frame a policy for this, which is likely to be approved when the award committee — headed by Union Home Secretary G K Pillai — meets on January 4.