Refusal to register is common and there is a clear escalation ladder for it. Use it in order, because each step creates the record the next step needs.
The legal position
In Lalita Kumari v. Government of Uttar Pradesh (2013) a Constitution Bench addressed FIR registration under the former CrPC. For proceedings governed by the BNSS, read that decision with the express preliminary-inquiry provision in Section 173(3), explained below.
The BNSS has since given a preliminary enquiry a statutory home, and its limits are worth knowing before an officer stretches them. Section 173(3) permits the station house officer, only where the offence is punishable with three years or more but less than seven years, and only with the prior permission of an officer not below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police, to hold a preliminary enquiry into whether a prima facie case exists, and it must be completed within fourteen days. That particular statutory inquiry power requires both the punishment band and prior permission. Other applicable laws and saved proceedings must be assessed separately. So if a station says it is verifying a complaint of a grave offence, ask which sub-section it is acting under and on whose permission.
Two further things Section 173 gives you. Information may be given orally or by electronic communication, and an electronic complaint goes on record once signed within three days, so an email or portal complaint is a real complaint. And under Section 173(2) a copy of the recorded information must be supplied forthwith and free of cost to the informant or victim.
The station will not register it. Escalate in this order
- First, submit the complaint in writing at the station and insist on an acknowledgement with a diary number.
- Refused? Send it in writing to the Superintendent of Police, or the Commissioner in Bengaluru, by registered post. If satisfied a cognizable offence is disclosed, they must direct registration.
- Still nothing? Apply to the jurisdictional Magistrate under Section 175(3) BNSS, formerly Section 156(3) CrPC, to direct an investigation.
- Or file a private complaint before the Magistrate under Section 223 BNSS and have the court take cognizance directly.
- At every step, keep the postal receipt and the acknowledgement. The record of refusal is what makes the next step work.
The escalation ladder
- Give it in writing at the station and insist on an acknowledgement with a date and stamp. Keep a copy.
- Send it to the Superintendent of Police by registered post or email, under Section 173(4) BNSS. If the SP is satisfied a cognizable offence is disclosed, they must either investigate or direct an officer to do so.
- Apply to the Magistrate under Section 175(3) BNSS for a direction to the police to register and investigate. This is the step that works. Note that the BNSS requires you to first have made the application to the SP and to support the Magistrate application with an affidavit. The Magistrate also now hears the police officer before deciding, so expect a report from the station.
- Private complaint before the Magistrate under Section 223 BNSS, where you prefer the court to take cognizance directly rather than send it back to the police. The Magistrate examines the complainant and witnesses on oath, and by an express proviso no cognizance may be taken without giving the accused an opportunity of being heard. That is new, and means the complaint must be drafted to survive being read by the other side at the outset.
- Writ petition before the High Court in an appropriate case, particularly where there is inaction on a serious offence.
A police station cannot refuse on the ground that the offence took place outside its jurisdiction. It must register a zero FIR and transfer it to the station having jurisdiction. Section 173(1) BNSS now says so in terms, by requiring information about a cognizable offence to be recorded irrespective of the area where the offence is committed. This matters most in cases involving travel, cyber offences and offences against women, where the victim may be far from where the offence occurred. The mechanics, and what to do when the station still refuses, are set out in our guide on the zero FIR and how to get an FIR registered.
Practical points
- Write the complaint carefully. It should disclose the facts constituting the offence, not just an accusation. Vagueness is what gives the station room to refuse.
- Send it by a mode that gives proof of dispatch and delivery.
- Keep the chronology. The Magistrate application is far stronger when it shows the station and the SP were both approached and did nothing.
- Name the sections you say are attracted, but do not stake the complaint on them. The facts decide the offence.
In Bengaluru specifically
Within the Bengaluru city police limits the escalation above the station runs to the jurisdictional Assistant Commissioner, then the Deputy Commissioner of Police for the division, then the Commissioner of Police, rather than to a Superintendent of Police; outside the commissionerate it is the Superintendent of Police for the district. The Karnataka State Police online complaint facility and the number 112 both generate a dated record with a reference, which is the evidence a Section 175(3) application is built on. If the complaint concerns online fraud, do not queue at a station. Report it on the cybercrime helpline 1930 and the national portal the same day, because the first hours decide whether a transferred amount can be frozen; the steps are in our guide on how to report a cyber crime in India.
After it is registered
Registration is the beginning, and the commonest complaint after it is silence. Section 193 BNSS now requires the police to inform the informant or victim of the progress of the investigation within ninety days. Keep your own file: the FIR copy, the acknowledgements, every letter and the dates. If the investigation goes nowhere, that file supports an application for further investigation or a protest petition. And if a complaint arrives in retaliation, a familiar sequel, the remedies are in our note on being falsely accused of a crime.