WHAT TO DO IF POLICE DOES NOT TAKE ACTION ON MY POLICE COMPLAINT?

ONE MUST ALWAYS TRY TO REFRAIN FROM STEPPING INTO THE CONTOURS OF A COURTROOM, FOR THOSE WHO ENTER ARE FOOLS, WHO VALUE THEIR MONEY OVER THEIR TIME.

                                         - A SMART PERSON

There may be several reasons as to why the Investigation Officer (hereinafter “I.O.”) is not in favour of registering an FIR in your case. Apart from the usual reason, which I am not in favor of mentioning on this online portal, the other reason(s) may include:

• That, the IO feels your complaint is based on false facts.

• That, the IO feels your complaint has arisen because of a mere ego-clash between you and the accused.

• That, the IO feels your complaint do not fall within the four-corners of any criminal offence mentioned under Indian Penal Code or any other Penal Act.

• That, the IO feels your complaint lacks enough witness/evidences to prove such criminal offence against the Accused.

• That, the IO feels your complaint is trivial and that you have not suffered any actual damage.

• That, your complaint is a lost case and will never sustain in front of the Magistrate.

The law is very simple and very clear on this point as mentioned under Section 154 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter “CrPC”) that – "if the offence is a cognizable offence, an FIR shall mandatorily be registered by the Police".

Many people may already know that in order to initiate a criminal action against someone, an F.I.R. is mandatory and the very first document of a criminal process, hence, rightly “setting the criminal law in motion”. Still the question arises “What if the Police still does not take any action, then what?”

WHAT IS THE OTHER WAY TO FILE AN F.I.R.?

There are various other ways of building pressure on the Police to file an FIR in the case, but that might take a substantial amount of money out of the Complainant’s pocket. Let me tell you about the most usual and the cheapest way to do that.

REGISTRATION OF F.I.R. BY POLICE ON THE DIRECTIONS OF MAGISTRATE:

    After following this procedure, if your case and your fortune is good enough, the Magistrate will direct the Police to file the F.I.R. and then the Police will have to file an FIR in your case. The procedure to accomplish the Magistrate's favourable order is as follows: 

(a) Note: Before starting this procedure, it is important that you already have sent the Police Complaint to the Superintendent of Police/ Commissioner of Police and he/she too has not taken any action on the same, just like the IO.

(b)Prepare a Complaint u/s. 156(3) CrPC to be filed before a Magistrate:

It gets a little tricky here. Therefore, people usually contact a lawyer to do this job. But, it depends upon your understanding of law. A Complaint u/s. 156(3) should basically contain the following portions:

• The Cause Title – The Court before whom you are filing this matter; Name of Parties (i.e. Complainant’s name v/s. Accused Name).

• Subject of Complaint shall include the section by which this Court is empowered to give you the requisite relief that you are asking (i.e. Section 156(3) of CrPC).

• Body of the Complaint – This should be the content as mentioned in the Police Complaint. However, as this is going before a Magistrate, you might re-check your grammatical errors and the flow of your arguments. It should ideally be only about the incident and the facts that lead up to the happening of the incident and nothing else.
  

• Additional Body – This should contain the exact details of the Police Complaint which was sent to the relevant Police Station as well as the SP/CP, and that they have not taken any action on your complaint. You should attach the Police Complaint bearing the “Acknowledgment stamp & Date” of Police and SP/CP as ‘Annexures’. 

• Prayer – This should contain the exact reason as to what do you want from this Court. In this case, the reason being “Directing the Police to file an FIR” in your case.

For further information, you may take help from the vast ocean of knowledge i.e. Google or from a mediocre undersigned Advocate.

(c)  File the Complaint in the Court-Office of that specific Magistrate:

For filing this Complaint, you may take help of the Clerks working in such Court office or Peons or an Advocate. After filing the complaint, the matter may take a couple of weeks/months’ time to reach the Board for its First hearing.

(d)  Magistrate to examine the Complainant and Witnesses (if any) on the First Hearing:

Be prepared for your examination by the Magistrate himself. In case the Magistrate need to understand any factual detail, be prepared for that too. Accused will not be called for the hearing at this stage.

After reading your Complaint u/s. 156(3) and the Annexures supporting it, if the Magistrate is of the opinion that a cognizable offence appears to have been committed by the Accused. Then, the Magistrate shall direct the relevant Police authorities to file an FIR and further proceed as per the law laid under CrPC.

 

 

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WHAT TO DO IF A FALSE F.I.R HAS BEEN FILED AGAINST ME?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Advocate Shreyas Jain, being a legal practitioner based in Mumbai, specializes in Criminal Law and primarily deal with criminal matters placed before Metropolitan Magistrates and Session Courts at Mumbai & Thane. Mr. Jain is a first generation lawyer and believes in working and excelling at the ground level before going big. You may reach him through his e-mail jainshreyas1995@gmail.com

 

NOTE: VIEWS MENTIONED IN THE ARTICLE ABOVE ARE PERSONAL AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ANY PERSON, PLACE, ORGANISATION OR ANY OTHER FALLING UNDER THE DEFINITION OF ‘PERSON’ UNDER INDIAN PENAL CODE, 1860.