C R IM IN A L LA W

CO G N IZA B LE O FFEN CE

Cognizable offences are those where a police officer

can arrest without warrant.

And such cases, after arrest has been made, the
accused will be produced before a magistrate, and he
may require the police officer to investigate the
matter.
After investigation, if the case is made out, i.e. charge
sheet filed goes against accused, the magistrate can
order for arrest.
During the pendency of trial, bail application can be
moved before the concerned magistrate.
Cognizable offences are both bailable, and nonbailable.

EX A M P LES O F C O G N IZA B LE O FFEN C ES

Offences of waging or attempting to wage

war, or abetting the waging of war against

the government of India.
Wearing the dress or carrying any token
used by a soldier, sailor or airman with
intent that it may be believed that he is
such a soldier, sailor or airman.
Rioting armed with deadly weapon.
Hiring, engaging or employing person to
take part in an unlawful assembly or taking
part in self.

 Being or expecting to be a public servant, and taking, and

taking a gratification other than legal remuneration in

respect of an official act.
Public servant obtaining any valuable thinks, without
consideration, from a person concerned in any proceeding
or business transacted by such public servant.
Counterfeiting, or performing any pat of the process of
counterfeiting Indian coin.
Having possession of a counterfeit government stamp.
Making or selling false weights or measures for fraudulent
use.
Negligently doing any act known to be likely to spread
infection of any disease dangerous to life.
Causing a disturbance to an assembly engaged in religious
worships.

N O N - CO G N IZA B LE O FFEN CE

Non

cognizable offences are those,

where a police officer cannot arrest
without a warrant.

Examples:
Owner or occupier of land not giving information of
riot etc.
A public servant disobeying a direction of the law
with intent to cause injury to any person.
A public servant unlawfully engaging in trade.
Bribery during elections.
Making any false statement in connection with an
election.

EX A M PLES O F N O N -CO G N IZA B LE O FFEN CES

Absconding to avoid service of summons or other

proceeding from a public servant, like where

summons or notice require attendance in person
etc, in a court of justice.
Refusing to take oath when duly required taking
oath by a pubic servant.
Obstructing public servant in discharge of his
public functions.
Giving or fabricating false evidence in a judicial
proceeding.
False claim in a court of justice.
Fraudulent use of false instrument for weighting.

EX A M PLES O F N O N -CO G N IZA B LE O FFEN CES

Selling any food or drink as food and drink

knowing the same to be noxious.

Offering for sale or issuing from a dispensary
any drug or medical preparation known to
have been adulterated.
Voluntarily causing hurt on grave and sudden
provocation, not intending to hurt any other
than the person, who gave the provocation.
Buying or disposing of any person as a slave.
Dishonest
misappropriation
of
movable
property, or converting it to one's own use.

FIR
What is First Information Report (FIR)?
Report pertaining to occurrence of a

cognizable offence, received at the Police

Station is called First Information Report,
popularly known as FIR. Since it is the first
information about the cognizable offence, it
is called First Information report.
On receipt of this information police
registers the report in a FIR Register and
begins the investigation of the crime.

fi
r
It is an information given under sub-section

(1) of section 154 CrPC

It is the earliest and the first information of
a cognizable offence recorded by an officerin-charge of a police station. It sets the
criminal law in motion and marks the
commencement of the investigation which
ends up with the formation of opinion
under section 169 or 170 CrPC, as the case
may be, and forwarding of a police report
under section 173 CrPC.

fi
r
What to do if the Police Station refuses to

register the FIR?

If the Police Station refuses to register FIR, substance
of the information in writing can be sent by post to the
Assistant
Commissioner
of
Police
or
Deputy
Commissioner of Policeof the respective zone or
Commissioner of Police. If satisfied that the information
discloses the commission of a cognizable offence, shall
get the FIR registered and investigated.
If the FIR is still not filed, you may file an RTI OR file a
complaint to the State Home Ministry, OR file a private
complaint with the Magistrate u/s 190 of CrPC OR file a
Vigilance/Anti-Corruption Complaint against the police
officers.

NC
What

the Police Station does with a

complaint pertaining to Non-cognizable
offence?
As per Cr.PC, Police Station is required to record
an abstract of such complaint in the General
Diary which is called N.C. and advise the
complainant to file the complaint in the
concerned court as police is not empowered to
initiate action in such matters without the
directions of the court.
A copy of the entry made in the General Diary
may be provided to the complainant free of cost.

Lalita Kum ariv.G ovt O fU P

In

a
landmark
Judgement,
a
Constitution Bench of Supreme Court
of India has held that Police Officers
Are Bound To Register FIR Upon
Receiving Information of Commission
of a Cognizable Offence in India-Lalita Kumari v. Govt Of UP (2013) SC
(5J).

 The important issue which arises for consideration in

the referred matter was whether a police officer is

bound to register a First Information Report (FIR) upon
receiving any information relating to commission of a
cognizable offence under Section 154 of the Code of
Criminal Procedure, 1973 (in short the Code) or the
police officer has the power to conduct a preliminary
inquiry in order to test the veracity of such
information before registering the same?
The Bench after analysing the history of provisions
related to FIR observed that the legislative intent in
both old codes and the new code manifests for
compulsory registration of FIR in a case of cognizable
offence without conducting any Preliminary Inquiry.

 By Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013, Section 166A

was inserted in Indian Penal Code, 1860. The insertion of

Section 166A in the IPC vide Criminal Law (Amendment)
Act 2013, must be read in consonance with the provision
and not contrary to it. The insertion of Section 166A was in
the light of recent unfortunate occurrence of offences
against women.
The intention of the legislature in putting forth this
amendment was to tighten the already existing provisions
to provide enhanced safeguards to women.
Therefore, the legislature, after noticing the increasing
crimes against women in our country, thought it
appropriate to expressly punish the police officers for their
failure to register FIRs in these cases. No other meaning
than this can be assigned to for the insertion of the same.

B ailable and N on-B ailable

of e
fnce
What is a Bailable offence?
In bailable offences, the accused can claim bail as a

matter of right. Police is supposed to release such

an accused on bail if he is prepared to give bail at
any time while he is in the custody of a Police
Officer.
What is a Non-Bailable offence?
In non-bailable offences, the accused is not entitled
to bail as a matter of right. Police invariably does
not take bail in such cases and only the Court
grants bail. The list of bailable and non-bailable
offences is given in the first schedule of the Cr.PC.

investigation,inquiry and trial

The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (the CrPC)

is the procedural law providing the machinery

for punishment of offenders under the
substantive criminal law, be it the Indian Penal
Code, 1860 or any other penal statute.
The CrPC contains elaborate details about the
procedure to be followed in every investigation,
inquiry and trial, for every offence under the
Indian Penal Code or under any other law.
It divides the procedure to be followed for
administration of criminal justice into three
stages: namely investigation, inquiry and trial.

investigation
Investigation is a preliminary stage conducted

by the police and usually starts after the

recording of a First Information Report (FIR) in
the police station.
If the officer-in-charge of a police station
suspects the commission of an offence, from
statement of FIR or when the magistrate
directs or otherwise, the officer or any
subordinate officer is duty-bound to proceed to
the spot to investigate facts and circumstances
of the case and if necessary, takes measures
for the discovery and arrest of the offender.

Investigation
Investigation

primarily
consists
of
ascertaining facts and circumstances of
the case.
It includes all the efforts of a police
officer for collection of evidence:
proceeding to the spot;
ascertaining facts and circumstances;
discovery and arrest of the suspected
offender;

Investigation
collection of evidence relating to the commission of

offence, which may consist of the examination of

various persons including the accused and taking
of their statements in writing and the search of
places or seizure of things considered necessary for
the investigation and to be produced at the trial;
formation of opinion as to whether on the basis of
the material collected there is a case to place the
accused before a magistrate for trial and if so,
taking the necessary steps for filing the chargesheet. Investigation ends in a police report to the
magistrate.

Inquiry and Trial

Inquiry consists of a magistrate, either

on receiving a police report or upon a

complaint by any other person, being
satisfied of the facts.
Trial is the judicial adjudication of a
persons guilt or innocence; Under the
CrPC, criminal trials have been
categorized into three divisions having
different procedures, called warrant,
summons and summary trials.

Sum m ons C ase and

W arrant C ase
As perSection 2(w), "summons-case" means a
case relating to an offence, and not being a
warrant-case and as perSection 2 (x), "warrantcase" means a case relating to an offence
punishable with death, imprisonment for life or
imprisonment for a term exceeding two years.
Cr P C classifies an offence as either cognizable or
non-cognizable, and a trial procedure as summons
case or warrant case. Thus, the terms summons
case and warrant case are in reference to the
procedure adopted for the trial of the case.

w arrant case
A warrant case relates to offences punishable

with
death,
imprisonment
for
life
or
imprisonment for a term exceeding two years.
The CrPC provides for two types of procedure
for the trial of warrant cases by a magistrate,
triable by a magistrate, viz., those instituted
upon a police report and those instituted upon
complaint.
In respect of cases instituted on police report, it
provides for the magistrate to discharge the
accused upon consideration of the police report
and documents sent with it.

w arrant case
In respect of the cases instituted otherwise

than on police report, the magistrate hears the

prosecution and takes the evidence. If there is
no case, the accused is discharged.
If the accused is not discharged, the magistrate
holds regular trial after framing the charge, etc.
In respect of offences punishable with death,
life imprisonment or imprisonment for a term
exceeding seven years, the trial is conducted in
a sessions court after being committed or
forwarded to the court by a magistrate.

sum m ons case

A summons case means a case relating to an

offence not being a warrant case, implying all

cases relating to offences punishable with
imprisonment not exceeding two years.
In respect of summons cases, there is no need to
frame a charge.
The court gives substance of the accusation,
which is called notice, to the accused when the
person appears in pursuance to the summons.
The court has the power to convert a summons
case into a warrant case, if the magistrate thinks
that it is in the interest of justice.

sum m ary trial

The high court may empower magistrates of

first class to try certain offences in a summary

way. Second class magistrates can summarily
try an offence only if punishable only with a
fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding
six months.
In a summary trial, any CJM,MM,Magistrate
first Class empowered by HC may try
summarily all or any of the offence not
punishable with death, life imprisonment or
imprisonment for a term exceeding two years;

Com poundable and N on Com poundable

O fe
fnces
-Some offences largely affect only the victim

and no considerable harm is considered to be

done to the society. In such offences, if the
offender and victim compromise, there is no
need to waste court's time in conducting a
trial.
The process of reaching a compromise is
called Compounding. Conceptually, such
offences, in which a compromise can be done
and a trial can be avoided, are called
Compoundable offence. Rest of the offences
are non-compoundable