Section 154 of Indian Penal Code- FIR
The First Information Report gives information of the commission of a cognizable crime. It may be made by the complainant or by any other person knowing about the commission of such an offence. It is intended to set the criminal law in motion. FIR is the first version of the incident as received by the police. The statements in the FIR must naturally get their due weight.
The F.I.R. in criminal case is extremely vital and and valuable piece of evidence. It is used for the purpose of corroborating and contradicting the oral evidence of the complainant at trial in court. Information in a cognizable cases to the police may be oral or written. The principle object of the first information report is to set the criminal law in motion and and the investigating authorities are to obtain information about the criminal activity to trace and book the guilty.
Important Points for lodging a Strong FIR
Every FIR should be signed by the informant
Copy of FIR be given forthwith free of cost to the informant.
FIR must have the information regarding the circumstances in which the crime was committed.
The name of the actual culprit should be mentioned in the FIR with their address if known.
The role and part played by the culprits should be mentioned properly.
There should be the name of Eye – witnesses in the FIR.
No doubt occurrence of any crime creates a shocking situation for the family of the victim. They go to police station with his written complaint or gives oral statement regarding the crime. If the complainant makes a written complaint to police, he should be sure enough about mentioning of all facts of the case properly. If police writes the FIR, the complainant should read the same and see whether all his facts are properly mentioned there before he puts his signature on the FIR. The words in FIR are considered by the court as the words of complainant or informant and he is responsible for any explanation in this regard. It can’t be said that it’s police who has written it or police has made mistake in writing FIR.
Court has observed in Bhaga Ram V. State of Rajasthan, 1995 that ” Though the FIR is not intended to be a catalogue of events, it is required to contain basic features of the prosecution case, since it sets law into motion. It was further observed that an FIR is not the encyclopedia of the entire case and is not even substantive piece of evidence. It is valuable for corroborating and contradicting the maker.
It is necessary to note here that the omission of important facts in an FIR would affect the veracity of the prosecution case. FIR need not mention the minutes detail and it is sufficient if it gives broad spectrum of the incident.
The Delhi High Court in Babu Lal Vs. State , 1995 has held that an FIR is not a document which must contain all the details, and if all the details are not contained in the FIR, it can not be inferred in law that the author of the FIR was not aware of the details at the time he lodged the report.
FIR does not constitute substantive evidence, it can however, be used as previous statement for the purpose of corroboration or contradiction of its maker under Secion 157 or Section 145 of the Indian Evidence Act. It can by no means be utilized for contradicting or discrediting other witnesses.
Since an FIR is not a substantive piece of evidence, the court has to consider other evidence for deciding whether the case should stand or fail.
FIR has a great value because it is the version of the incident at the first available opportunity on which investigation commenced. Criminal Courts attach great importance to the lodging of prompt FIR because the same greatly diminishes the chances of false implication of accused as well as that of informant being tutored.
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