Police bound to register FIR as per complaints: SC

A Supreme Court Bench says police cannot question veracity of the complaints before the probe.

The Supreme Court has held that the police is bound to register an FIR on the basis of the allegations in a complaint otherwise it would result into "grave miscarriage of justice".

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Holding that police has to probe the case according to the allegation contained in the complaint, a Bench comprising Justice HK Seema and Justice PK Balasubramanyan said police cannot question veracity of the complaints before the probe.

"The mandate of the section 154 CrPC is manifestly clear that if any information disclosing a cognisable offence is laid before an officer in charge of a police station, such police officer has no other option except to register the case on the basis of such information," the Bench said.

"The concerned police officer is statutorily obliged to register the case on the basis of the offence disclosed in the complaint petition and proceed with investigation in terms of procedure... of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC)," it said.

Further, the court said reliablity, genuineness and credibility of the information are not the conditions precedent for registering a case under section 154 of the code.

The ruling came on a Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by nine accused persons against the order of the Patna High Court which while rapping the police for deliberately not lodging the FIR under various sections including 395 (dacoity) of the IPC against them, had committed the case to a Sessions court for fresh trial.