What an FIR is, and what it is not
An FIR — First Information Report — is the written record of the first information the police receive about a cognizable offence. It is not a court case, not a finding of guilt, and not a judgment about whether your complaint is true. It is the document that starts an investigation, and its date and number are what everything afterwards hangs off.
Since 1 July 2024 the governing law is the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), which replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. The FIR provision, formerly Section 154 CrPC, is now Section 173 BNSS. If an older article or a form still says "Section 154 CrPC", the substance is similar but the numbering and some of the detail have changed — and three of the changes below are genuinely new.
Zero FIR: any station must take it
Section 173(1) opens by saying that information about a cognizable offence may be given "irrespective of the area where the offence is committed".
This is the single most useful line in the section for an ordinary person. It means a police station cannot turn you away on the ground that the offence happened somewhere else. The station registers the FIR and transfers it to the one with jurisdiction. You are not required to travel to the scene of the offence, or to work out which station's boundary a street falls in, before anyone will listen to you.
Three ways to give the information
| How | What the law requires |
|---|---|
| Orally | The officer reduces it to writing, reads it over to you, and you sign it |
| In writing | You sign it |
| By electronic communication | Taken on record, then signed by you within three days |
The three-day signature window on electronic information matters. An e-FIR that is never signed is incomplete, so if you start the process online, follow it through in person inside three days.
Your copy is free, and it is not optional
Section 173(2): a copy of the information as recorded shall be given forthwith, free of cost, to the informant or the victim.
You should not have to file an application for it, wait for it, or pay for it. Before you leave the station, read what has been written down and check the FIR number, the date and time of recording, the police station, and the sections of law noted. An error in the recorded sections is much easier to raise early.
Where a woman is the complainant
Where the information is given by a woman against whom an offence under any of the sections listed in the first proviso to Section 173(1) is alleged — the sexual-offence provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with Section 124 — the information shall be recorded by a woman police officer or any woman officer.
Where such a person is temporarily or permanently mentally or physically disabled, the second proviso requires that the information be recorded at that person's residence or a convenient place of their choice, in the presence of an interpreter or special educator, that the recording be videographed, and that the police get the statement recorded by a Magistrate as soon as possible.
These are entitlements, not courtesies. If a station tries to record such a complaint otherwise, the proviso is what you point to.
The 14-day preliminary enquiry — new in BNSS
This has no equivalent in the old Code, and it is the change most likely to surprise someone who has done this before.
For a cognizable offence punishable with three years or more but less than seven years, Section 173(3) permits the officer in charge — with the prior permission of an officer not below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police, and considering the nature and gravity of the offence — to either:
- conduct a preliminary enquiry within fourteen days to see whether a prima facie case exists; or
- proceed with investigation where a prima facie case already exists.
So for that band of offences, registration is no longer automatically followed by investigation. Two things are worth knowing: the fourteen days is a ceiling, and the DSP-level permission is a precondition. If you are told an enquiry is under way, you can reasonably ask when the fourteen days began.
If the police will not register it
Section 173(4) sets out a ladder, and it is worth following in order because each rung creates the record for the next.
- Write to the Superintendent of Police, sending the substance of the information in writing and by post. If the SP is satisfied it discloses a cognizable offence, the SP must investigate it personally or direct a subordinate to do so — and that officer then has all the powers of a station house officer for that offence.
- Failing that, apply to the Magistrate. Section 175(3) allows a Magistrate empowered under Section 210 to order an investigation after considering an application supported by an affidavit and hearing what the police say about it.
Use registered or speed post and keep the receipt. The provision specifies post, and the receipt fixes the date you asked — which is the fact that matters if you end up before a Magistrate.
Arrest is a separate question from registration
An FIR being registered does not mean anyone is arrested, and people often conflate the two.
- Section 35(3): where arrest is not required, the police officer shall issue a notice directing the person to appear. A notice is not an arrest.
- Section 35(7): for an offence punishable with less than three years, no arrest shall be made without the prior permission of an officer not below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police where the person is infirm or above sixty years of age.
If an arrest does happen, there is a separate and well-established set of requirements the police must follow — see our explainer on the eleven arrest requirements in D. K. Basu.
What happens after registration
Under Section 176(1), where the officer in charge has reason to suspect a cognizable offence he is empowered to investigate, he must forthwith send a report to the Magistrate empowered to take cognizance, and either proceed in person or depute a subordinate to investigate, and if necessary take measures for the discovery and arrest of the offender.
The provisos matter in practice: where the case is not of a serious nature and the information names a person, the officer need not go to the spot in person; and if he finds there is no sufficient ground to investigate, he must say so — the section requires him to state his reasons in his report.
You can look up the sections referred to here in our legal codes reference, and ask our assistant about your own situation from the AI assistant.