Supreme Court Bench consisting of five judges headed by the Chief Justice P.Sathasivam gave its judgment today that an FIR (First Information Report) is compulsory to register in cognizable offences when a complaint is received. The Chief Justice P.Sathasivam speaking on behalf of the Bench said that action will be taken against the police officer failing to register FIR in cognizable offences.
In the case of cognizable offences an investigating officer can arrest the accused without arrest warrant. Cognizable offences attract punishment of 3 years or more on conviction.
Supreme Court also said that after registering FIR the preliminary investigation should be completed within 7 days to find out whether an offence took place as per the information but not to test the veracity of the complaint.
The exemption to it is that a preliminary investigation may be conducted before FIR in cases of matrimony, corruption and financial crimes and some other specified cases.
-SriJa
