Can you file an FIR at any police station? Zero FIR explained

What the law says

What a Zero FIR is. An ordinary FIR is registered by the police station in whose area the offence occurred. A Zero FIR is the exception: it can be lodged at any police station, whichever one you reach, even if the crime took place somewhere else. That station records the information, gives it the number "0" instead of a serial number, and then transfers it to the station that has territorial jurisdiction, which renumbers it and carries on the investigation. The point is speed: you are not turned away while evidence is lost and time runs out.

From practice to statute. For years the Zero FIR was a procedure, introduced on the recommendation of the Justice Verma Committee so that victims of serious crimes would not be sent away on jurisdictional pretexts. It has now been given an explicit statutory footing. Section 173 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 says that information about a cognizable offence may be given to a station house officer "irrespective of the area where the offence is committed", and courts have read this as making it imperative for any station to register such a complaint even when the incident happened outside its limits.

Registration is mandatory, and refusal is a dereliction. When the information discloses a cognizable offence, the officer has no discretion: registration is mandatory. Courts have held that the officer in charge has "no escape" from recording cognizable information, whether or not the offence was committed within the station's limits, and that returning a complaint to the informant instead of recording and forwarding it is a clear dereliction of duty. The police must register even where there is no formal informant, if they receive information sufficient to suspect a cognizable offence.

If the police still refuse, what the law gives you. The remedy is not a writ petition rushed to the High Court; courts send you to the statutory route instead. Under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, if the station house officer refuses to record the information, you can send your complaint in writing by post to the Superintendent of Police under Section 173(4). If that too fails, you can apply to the jurisdictional Magistrate under Section 175(3), attaching a copy of the application you made to the Superintendent of Police, supported by an affidavit. The Magistrate then applies their own mind to whether the allegations disclose a cognizable offence.

Two limits worth knowing. For a non-cognizable offence, the officer's duty to record is not the same when the matter is outside the station's limits. And for certain special laws, where only specific officers can start a prosecution, the ordinary Zero FIR practice does not apply. But for a cognizable offence under the general law, the duty to register is clear.

What you can do

1. Say clearly that you are reporting a cognizable offence and ask them to register the FIR. If the officer says the offence happened outside their area, tell them you are asking for a Zero FIR, which any station must register regardless of jurisdiction under Section 173 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023.
2. Insist that your oral information be written down, read back to you, and signed by you, and ask for the free copy of the FIR that you are entitled to.
3. Ask that it be numbered as a Zero FIR, "0", and transferred to the jurisdictional police station. The officer cannot simply hand your complaint back or refuse it on territorial grounds.
4. If they still refuse, send your written complaint by post to the Superintendent of Police under Section 173(4) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023.
5. If the Superintendent does not act, apply to the jurisdictional Magistrate under Section 175(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, attaching a copy of the complaint you sent to the Superintendent, supported by an affidavit. This sequence is now the required path.
6. Do not rush to the High Court with a writ to compel registration; courts have held that route is not maintainable and will direct you to the Magistrate.

Cases that matter

Anand Sathish v. Superintendent of Police, High Court of Madras (2024). The court held that the Zero FIR has been given a statutory basis by its inclusion in Section 173(1) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, so that an officer in charge must record information about a cognizable offence irrespective of jurisdictional competence, and then transfer the case to the police station that has jurisdiction rather than continue it themselves.

Gokulananda Purohit v. State of Odisha, High Court of Orissa (2024). The police had refused to register a complaint citing lack of territorial jurisdiction. The court held that an officer in charge cannot refuse to record information about a cognizable offence on that ground, that the law requires it to be recorded irrespective of where the offence was committed, and that returning the complaint to the informant is a clear dereliction of duty.

Neelu Shrivastava v. State, High Court of Delhi (2021). The court explained that the only difference between an ordinary FIR and a Zero FIR is that the latter can be lodged at any station regardless of where the incident occurred, that the procedure came from the Justice Verma Committee's recommendations to give victims quick redressal, and that once recorded the station must transfer the papers to the jurisdictional station to number and investigate.

Petitioner v. Station House Officer of II Town Police Station, High Court of Andhra Pradesh (2022). The court held that although registering a Zero FIR is the police's duty, a person whose FIR or Zero FIR is not registered cannot come straight to the High Court by writ. The proper remedy is to use the statutory route under the Code, that is, the Superintendent of Police and then the Magistrate. It marks where to go when the police refuse.