To report or not to report.

If we look at the current state of things in our country at the moment, there is no good news. You switch on the television, you pick up the newspaper, you have an impromptu meeting with friends, and you find that everyone is in a state of dismay. What we are doing about it, to put it mildly, is absolutely nothing. We are more than happy to delve upon the problems plaguing our country but no one is willing to become part of the cure.

Being a member of the legal fraternity and a human rights activist, I witness the law of the land being abused on a daily basis. The constitution that our forefathers swore to uphold has just become a book that can be sold at the flea market. The red light on the roads is just a trinket for the people. The list goes on ad nauseam.

In my subsequent articles I will try to identify the core legal problems that plague our country. Perhaps the reader can have a better purview of the pitfalls that have been created over the decades in a redundant legal system that is screaming for change. In this endeavour perhaps we can achieve legal awareness among our readers. I would like to begin these series of articles with the most important document in a criminal case i.e. the F.I.R (First Information Report).

A First Information Report or an FIR is a written document prepared by the police in Pakistan, India and Japan when they receive information about the commission of a cognizable offence (i.e. over which police has jurisdiction). It is a report that reaches the concerned police officer first in point of time and that is why it is called the First Information Report. The offence is entered in a particular format in a register at the police station. The complaint can be filed by the Complainant who is an aggrieved person or somebody on his behalf; by any person who is aware of the offence as an eye witness or as a hearsay account; provided the person in possession of the hearsay is required to subscribe his signature to it and mention the source of his information so that it does not amount to irresponsible rumour. The rule of law is, if general law is broken any person has a right to complain whether he has suffered an injury or not.

An officer who receives an oral report shall reduce it to writing and cause it to be recorded in the FIR register. A certified copy of the FIR, signed by an officer bearing the stamp of the police station is to be provided to the person who reports the crime. Even a telephone call can be treated as the basis for an FIR.

The recording officer and the complainant should know to the extent possible, the 11 Ws while recording or reporting the FIR:

1. What information he or she has come to convey.
2. In what capacity.
3. Who committed the crime.
4. Against whom the crime was committed.
5. When: the time.
6. Where: the place.
7. Why: the motive.
8. Which way: the actual occurrence.
9. Witnesses.
10. What was taken away.
11. What traces were left by the accused.

The FIR is primarily a substantive piece of evidence. It can be used in the following ways:

1. For corroboration purposes. It cannot be ignored altogether and can be used to corroborate the statement of the eyewitnesses.
2. For contradicting the evidence of person giving the information.
3. For proving as an admission against the informer.
4. For refreshing informer's memory.
5. For impeaching the credit of an informer.
6. For proving informer's conduct.
7. For establishing identity of the accused, witnesses and for fixing spot time as relevant facts.

The law pertaining to FIR is quite unambiguous that when information about the commission of a cognizable offence is given orally, the police must write it down. The person giving information or making a complaint has a right to demand that the information recorded by the police be read to him or her and once the information has been recorded by the police, it must be signed by the person giving the information.

Unfortunately, in procedure neither the filing of an FIR is simple nor is it as easy as the law requires it to be. The police occasionally refuse to register an FIR, launch preliminary investigations that are not needed, disregard the mandatory edict that an FIR is to be registered on the reporting of a crime and often concoct false FIRs to harass the innocent and serve the cause of the mischievous.

No police officer has the authority to refuse registration of a case. In case a crime is reported and a case is not registered, the person who reports the crime must inform the Sub-Divisional Police Officer or the Superintendent of Police or the District Police Officer responsible for the area. There are cogent judgments to the effect that violation of this mandatory and pre-emptory duty is an aberration in Police discipline. Such a deviation in Police vocabulary is called 'Barking' which is punishable under the Police Act and Police Rules. The use of the word 'shall' in Section 154 of the Criminal Procedure Code indicates that police officer has no discretionary power to delay or refuse registration. The aggrieved person has a right that his complaint about the commission of a cognizable offence is registered in the Police Station as a preliminary step before investigation is undertaken. Superior Courts have time and again reiterated the requirement of strict compliance of S.154 Cr.P.C.

Unfortunately, most people when they witness an unfortunate incident or are themselves a victim have no clue about their own rights when they walk into a police station. People face a constant dilemma of whether even to report the crime they have witnessed. It is common knowledge, that instead of filing the FIR and conducting investigation on the same, the very informer is often questioned as if he or she has committed the crime. Not to mention the fact that they have to go through courts often just to register an FIR. To remedy this it was announced that an online system will be created, which will be more effective and transparent. Like most plans in this great nation of ours, it has still to materialize.

However, one must not hesitate from his civic duty because of such impediments. If and when you witness a crime or illegality, it is one's duty to report it honestly and diligently. For if we do not make these sacrifices now and try to do our share, our posterity will forever hold us accountable for not doing the 'right thing' when it was most needed. For life is but life and it needs civility to further it.