On Wednesday, the Police Department of Karnataka issued a circular with regard to registering of Zero FIR, as directed by the Karnataka High Court in the case of Umapathi v. State and others.

The circular stated,

“Even if the alleged offence has been committed outside the territorial jurisdiction of the police station, FIR shall be registered and the same shall be transferred to the appropriate police station.
Police officers should clearly be informed that the failure to comply with the direction of registration of FIR and a receipt of information about the cognizable offence may invite prosecution of the police officer under Section 166 A of the IPC and it may also invite departmental action against them.”

 As per the Circular, all the Unit Officers are strictly instructed to communicate the said directions to their Subordinate Officers.

The circular also states that disciplinary action would be initiated against Police Officers in case of non-compliance of the above. Further, senior police officers would be held liable under contempt of court proceedings if the instructions are not followed, the circular forewarned.

In Sept this year, a Division Bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Mohammad Nawaz issued the aforesaid directions on zero FIR while disposing of a PIL filed by Advocate S Umapathi. The petition had sought directions to implement the two advisories by the Central Government regarding prompt registration of FIRs. The advisories were issued by the Centre on Feb 06, 2014, and Oct 12, 2015.

The High Court held that,

"As it is an obligation on the Police to register FIR even if the alleged offence is committed outside the jurisdiction of the Police Station, there is a corresponding right available to the citizens to enforce the said obligation. Therefore, not only that, it is necessary to issue specific directions in writing in terms of the advisory, the directions should be placed on the public domain, so that the citizens are aware of such directions issued which would enable them to show the said directions to the police when they visit the police station for the registration of a complaint."

A Zero FIR can be filed in any Police Station regardless of the place of incidence or jurisdiction. After registration, the same is later transferred to the appropriate Police Station having competent jurisdiction after investigation. Zero FIRs are generally not numbered, contrary to the usual practice of registering FIRs.

The concept of Zero FIR was first introduced as a recommendation in the Justice Verma Committee Report, as a Section in the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013.

The Judgement has been passed by Chief Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Mohammad Nawaz on 19-09-2019:

Read Judgement Here:

 

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