An FIR, or First Information Report, is the document that sets a criminal investigation in motion. It is also the document people most often struggle to get registered. This note sets out the procedure as it stands under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), which replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure on 1 July 2024, and then the two remedies available when a police station will not cooperate.
Step 1: Give the information to the police station
Under section 173(1) of the BNSS, information about a cognizable offence can be given to the officer in charge of a police station orally or in writing. If it is given orally, the officer must reduce it to writing, read it over to you, and have you sign it. Cognizable offences are the more serious category, broadly those for which the police can arrest without a warrant, such as theft, cheating, assault causing hurt, criminal breach of trust and most offences against women.
In practice, go with a typed complaint. Keep it chronological, name the persons involved if known, state dates, places and amounts, and list the documents or evidence you have. Carry two copies and ask for the receiving copy to be stamped with the date and the station seal. Do not argue about which section applies; that is the officer's job, and a complaint overloaded with section numbers tends to be read with more suspicion, not less.
The BNSS also allows the information to be sent electronically. If you do this, you must sign the record at the station within three days, otherwise it is not treated as an FIR.
Step 2: The Zero FIR
Section 173(1) makes explicit what the Supreme Court had already laid down: information can be given at any police station, irrespective of the area where the offence was committed. The station that receives it registers it as a Zero FIR and transfers it to the station with jurisdiction. You cannot be turned away on the ground that "this is not our area". If that is the reason given, ask for a Zero FIR to be recorded.
Step 3: Take your free copy
Section 173(2) entitles the informant to a copy of the FIR free of cost, immediately. Make sure it carries the FIR number, the sections invoked and the date. If you are given a receipt without an FIR number, the complaint has not yet been registered as an FIR.
What about the preliminary enquiry?
One change under the BNSS that confuses complainants is section 173(3). For offences punishable with three to seven years' imprisonment, the officer in charge may, with the permission of an officer not below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police, conduct a preliminary enquiry for up to fourteen days to decide whether a prima facie case exists, before registering the FIR. This is not a licence to sit on a complaint indefinitely. If fourteen days pass without an FIR or a written reason, treat it as a refusal and move to the remedies below.
If the police refuse: write to the senior officer
Section 173(4) of the BNSS provides that if the officer in charge refuses to record the information, you may send the substance of it, in writing and by post, to the Superintendent of Police. In a police commissionerate, the equivalent is usually the Deputy Commissioner of Police for the area.
Send it by registered post or speed post with acknowledgement, and keep the receipt. The letter should state that you approached the named police station on a given date, that the officer refused to register the information, and should enclose your complaint. The senior officer may investigate the matter personally or direct a subordinate to do so. A well-drafted letter at this stage frequently results in registration within days, because it creates a paper trail that the station would rather not have to explain.
Then apply to the Magistrate
If the senior officer does not act, section 175(3) of the BNSS allows you to apply to the Magistrate empowered to take cognizance of the offence, asking for a direction to the police to register the FIR and investigate. This is the successor to the old section 156(3) CrPC application.
The BNSS adds two requirements the old law did not have. The application must be supported by an affidavit, and the Magistrate must first consider the submissions of the police officer concerned, and may conduct an enquiry, before passing an order. Attach proof that you tried both earlier steps: the stamped copy of your complaint and the postal receipt for the letter to the senior officer. Without those, the application is weak.
If you are in Kolkata
Kolkata has two separate police forces operating in what most residents think of as one city. Kolkata Police covers the core city and is organised into divisions, each under a Deputy Commissioner of Police; that is the officer to write to under section 173(4). Areas outside that boundary, including Salt Lake, New Town, Howrah and Barrackpore, fall under West Bengal Police, organised into districts and commissionerates, each with its own senior officer.
Applications under section 175(3) for offences within Kolkata Police limits are filed before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's court at Bankshall and then allocated; for areas in the South 24 Parganas portion of the metropolitan area, the Alipore courts have jurisdiction.
Timelines worth knowing
- There is no limitation period for giving information about a cognizable offence, but delay must be explained and weakens the case.
- The FIR copy is to be given immediately on registration.
- An electronic complaint must be signed at the station within three days.
- A preliminary enquiry, where permitted, must conclude within fourteen days.
- The section 173(4) letter has no fixed response period, but allow two to three weeks before approaching the Magistrate.
Common mistakes
Three things repeatedly undermine complaints. First, filing a general diary entry or a written complaint and assuming it is an FIR; check for the FIR number. Second, approaching the Magistrate before writing to the senior officer, which invites the application being returned. Third, a complaint that reads as a civil dispute, for example a loan not repaid, without the facts that make it criminal, such as the inducement that amounts to cheating. The facts, not the labels, decide whether the police must act.
Old law, new law
For readers who learnt the procedure under the CrPC: section 154 CrPC is now section 173 BNSS, section 154(3) is now section 173(4), and section 156(3) is now section 175(3). Offences committed before 1 July 2024 continue to be dealt with under the CrPC, so both numbering systems will remain in daily use for some years.