Zero FIR — Your Legal Right.
Many of us, like me, are certainly not much inclined towards news and politics. Therefore, remain unaware of some interesting laws like the one, Zero FIR. Or perhaps, I could be the dumbest. So, for those who didn’t know about it, in simple words, as suggested by its name itself:
“Zero FIR is an FIR that can be filed in “any” police station irrespective of the place of the incident and the territorial jurisdiction.” A police officer is duty-bound to register the case based on such information disclosing a cognizable offense and FIR to be registered irrespective of territorial jurisdiction. Its objective is fastening the process of law.
“Justice delayed is justice denied.”
(Territorial jurisdiction is the land limit of any court to exercise its powers and perform proceedings for any incident.
Cognizable offenses are those in which police officers, based on the FIR, can take immediate action and can arrest the accused without any warrant. FIR is only written in the case of cognizable offenses. These are generally serious crimes such as murder, rape, kidnapping, and dowry death, etc. Court orders aren’t necessary to start the investigation in such offenses.)
This interesting part of law took its origin from one of the most infamous cases in the history of crimes against women, the Nirbhaya Case 2012. This case highlighted that “Zero FIRs might be registered based on a woman’s statement at any police station irrespective of jurisdiction. This means women can file an FIR at any police station, and the complaint is required to be registered based on the woman’s complaint verbatim.” In this case, the benefit of such law as “quick action” was emphasized by the court.
The most recent and famous example of the same could be seen in the case of Late Shushant Singh Rajput. As the incident happened in Mumbai, but the FIR was logged in Bihar by the father of the deceased. But there can be no two or more police inquiries go hand in hand. Therefore, four police officers were sent from Bihar to look into the matter. However, the transfer petition can be filed as done by one of the accused Rhea Chakraborty.
The other infamous case is of Aasharam Bapu Rape case in 2013. The offense was committed in Jodhpur. But the aggrieved party was threatened for not filing FIR. The aggrieved party flew Delhi and filed an FIR there. The rule of Zero FIR was applied.
An effort by Bollywood was also made to create awareness of such right in the movie “Pink,” starring Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu.
Some key points to remember are —
- Police, on its own, cannot deny writing an FIR.
- In case of cognizable offenses, police are bound to write FIR irrespective of the territorial jurisdiction.
- Police officers who do not comply with the registration of such FIR may invite prosecution or departmental action.
- In case of refusal on the part of the officer in charge, the aggrieved person may send the information in writing to the concerned Superintendent of Police. On his satisfaction, he may investigate himself or may direct the investigation to his subordinate officers.
- The procedure to file Zero FIR is the same as that of an ordinary FIR.
Such laws are mainly helpful when one is traveling, and a cognizable offense is committed against him/her. He/she won’t be going back to the place of incident, therefore to ease the pain of the aggrieved party and for the quick actions, such laws are made.
“Your rights matter, because you never know when you are going to need them.”
