mehnatDoes an F.I.R. always contain First Information?
Top of PageAn FIR –going by its name– should be based upon the first information (about the commission of a crime) received by the police. This does not always happen.
When an FIR does not contain first information due to preliminary enquiry
Top of PageSometimes the police does not immediately register an FIR after obtaining / receiving some information (not being a written complaint, nor an oral complaint) from various sources such as police informers or news items or members of the public, because it is logical to make preliminary enquiries before relying upon such information to set the wheel of the law into motion. Section 173(3) (see below) of the BNSS [28] provides a legal basis for such a preliminary enquiry to be carried out by the police if it wants to do so. The police in such cases writes a "first information" report in its own language, after completing its enquiry. The version which is put down in writing after preliminary enquiry is a second or latter, and modified version of the information which is originally received.
When an FIR contains first information regardless of preliminary enquiry
Top of PageThe opposite of the above becomes true if the police receives a written or an oral complaint from any person who is ready and willing to become the complainant in the resulting matter. Then it does not have any option except to write down the complaint "as received" in the FIR, regardless of any preliminary enquiry.
A special case occurs when the police is required either by law or by procedure laid down by law to carry out a preliminary enquiry before registering an FIR. This is especially true in dowry cases. Crime against women cells have been established in every state to handle dowry cases and the job of these CAW cells is inter alia to carry out a preliminary enquiry upon receipt of dowry complaints. It must be stated here at the cost of repeating oneself that regardless of the preliminary enquiry carried out by the concerned CAW Cell, the FIR cannot deviate even an inch from the written complaint submitted to it in such cases.
Section 173(3) in Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita–Top of Page
(source: bprd.nic.in)
173 – Information in cognizable cases
(3) Without prejudice to the provisions contained in section 175, on receipt of information relating to the commission of any cognizable offence, which is made punishable for three years or more but less than seven years, the officer in charge of the police station may with the prior permission from an officer not below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police, considering the nature and gravity of the offence–
(i) proceed to conduct preliminary enquiry to ascertain whether there exists a prima facie case for proceeding in the matter within a period of fourteen days; or
(ii) proceed with investigation when there exists a prima facie case.
When FIR does not contain first information due to inadvertent inaccuracies
Top of PageSometimes the complainant is illiterate or not sufficiently literate, and is not able to write down the details of the alleged crime. As a result, any first information which is received is in verbal form, and small differences occur between what the complainant says and what the police writes down.
Less serious (than first information) FIR due to corruption / political pressure
Top of PageAt other times the information (not being a written complaint) is modified while putting it down in black and white. An incorrect and watered down version of the complaint is recorded. This usually happens due to bribery / corruption, or due to misuse of influence by various centres of power, or because of political pressure.
KPS Gill managed to convince the Punjab and Haryana High Court in a quashing petition u/s 482 CrPC that no offence was made out in the clear as day molestation complaint filed against him by Rupan Deol Bajaj. The problem for Gill was that the whole world held an opinion contrary to the Punjab and Haryana HC. The Supreme Court –where Mrs. Bajaj and her husband filed two separate SLPs [4] against the high court judgment– in its verdict agreed with the whole world instead of agreeing with the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
More serious (than facts / first information) FIR due to media pressure / corruption / political pressure
Top of PageCorruption in various forms and political pressure often lead to the opposite also, i.e. F.I.Rs in which details are modified to make them more severe than what actually happened. In such cases also the F.I.R. is incorrect, but modification of the original complaint is NOT the reason for its being incorrect. Rather, the original written complaint itself is either incorrect or legally unsustainable.
The Nisha Sharma / Munish Dalal dowry case is a prime example of exaggeration due to media pressure, wherein an FIR u/s 498A of IPC was registered even though the complainant never completed solemnisation of the proposed wedding, and hence was not the wife of the accused. Note that only the wife or a family member of the wife of any man is permitted to raise a complaint u/s 498A.
Other / miscellaneous causes of non-inclusion of first information
Top of PageIt might also happen that the victim of a crime is put out of action, or there is no complainant due to the death of all the victims of a particular crime. In such cases the first information received by the police is invariably from other sources, and often such sources are unwilling to put down their complaint in writing. The police is duty bound to register an FIR in a number of types of crime, and they are forced in such situations to write the report themselves.
It may even happen that the person who reports a crime has no locus standi which may render him eligible to be the complainant. In such cases a situation may arise due to various factors which may force the police to record the crime in their own language.
References:
Top of Page4)Mrs. Rupan Deol Bajaj & Another vs Kanwar Pal Singh Gill & Another on 12 October, 1995; Indiankanoon.org; Delhi; Undated; Retrieved on 08th May 2021
28) Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita Section 173 – Information in cognizable cases.; bprd.nic.in; Delhi; Undated; Retrieved on 23rd June 2025