A, B, C, D and E are alleged to have committed dacoity in the house of X. During dacoity the accused persons also murdered X. The wife of X who is a ‘rustic laywoman’ lodged the F.I.R. but did not give some incidental facts relating to occurrence. Can the F.I.R. be relied upon? Give reasons in support of your answer.

Question: A, B, C, D, and E are alleged to have committed dacoity in the house of X. During dacoity the accused persons also murdered X. The wife of X who is a ‘rustic laywoman’ lodged the F.I.R. but did not give some incidental facts relating to occurrence. Can the F.I.R. be relied upon? Give reasons in support of your answer.

Find the answer to the mains question only on Legal Bites. [A, B, C, D and E are alleged to have committed dacoity in the house of X. During dacoity the accused persons also murdered X. The wife of X who is a ‘rustic laywoman’ lodged the F.I.R. but did not give some incidental facts relating to occurrence. Can the F.I.R. be relied upon? Give reasons in support of your answer.]

Answer

The information given by any person to the police of an offence which the police are empowered to investigate under the Code (Cognizable Offence), is called ‘first information’. The provision regarding the first information report is contained in chapter six under Section 154 of CrPC, this information must be reduced to writing and the police officer must make a note of the receipt of this information in a diary maintained by him every day. This written information is called the “First Information Report” (FIR).

FIR is not a substantive piece of evidence. Therefore, even if the written report filed has not been duly proved the prosecution case will not fail on that ground alone and the court has to consider the substantive evidence which has been adduced by the prosecution.

The important characteristic requirement of an F.I.R:

1. That the information should be the first in point of time;

2. It should be information definite and responsible and not merely rumour or village gossip or hearsay of an indefinite variety;

3. It must have been given to an officer in charge of a police station;

4. It should be the information which set the police on their investigation in the particular case;

5. It should be given in writing or should be reduced to writing;

6. It should have been read over to the person who made it and it should be signed by such person;

7. It should be entered in a book kept for the purpose.

The Evidentiary Value of FIR must always depend on the facts and circumstances of a given case as observed in Dharma Rama Bhargava v. State of Maharashtra, 1973 Cri. L.J. 680 (S.C.).

In Asharam & Anr. v. State of M.P., [ AIR 2007 SC 2594]: The Apex Court held that we do not find any merit in the contentions made in this case. According to the trial court, the foundation of the investigation was not proved and, therefore all the accused were entitled to acquittal. In this connection, the main circumstance on which the trial court relied is the ante-timing of the FIR. It is well-settled that an FIR is not a substantive piece of evidence. It cannot contradict the testimony of the eyewitnesses even though it may contradict its maker.

As held in Superintendent of Police, CBI v. Tapan Kumar Singh, (2003) 6 SCC 175:

"FIR was not required to be an encyclopaedia, which must disclose all facts and details of the offence(s) alleged or complained of.”

It has been a settled law thus, that the first information report is not an encyclopedia which must disclose all facts and details relating to the offence reported. It would be premature to pronounce the conclusion based on hazy facts that the complaint/FIR does not deserve to be investigated or that it amounts to an abuse of the process of law.

Therefore, in the present case at hand, the fact that the wife of X lodged the FIR but omitted some incidental facts is not enough to question the completeness and accuracy of the report. The admissibility and reliability of the FIR will still hold value in the eyes of the law.

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