Articles

The issue that arose for consideration before the constitutional bench of the Supreme Court of India in Lalita Kumari vs. Govt. of UP (2014)2 SCC 1 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 Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (CrPC) 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 held that registration of FIR is mandatory under Section 154 of the CrPC, if the information discloses commission of a cognizable offence and no preliminary inquiry is permissible in such a situation. If the information received does not disclose a cognizable offence but indicates the necessity for an inquiry, a preliminary inquiry may be conducted only to ascertain whether cognizable offence is disclosed or not.

Recently, on 31 July 2023, a division bench of the Supreme Court of India (S. Ravindra Bhat and Aravind Kumar) in a criminal appeal (Md. Asfak Alam vs. State of Jharkhand and Anr (2023) SCCOnline SC 892) directed all the courts to strictly follow the law laid down in Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar, (2014) 8 SCC 469 and further reiterated the directions contained thereunder.

The issue before the Apex Court in Union of India vs. Popular Construction Co. (2001) 8 SCC 470 was whether the provisions of Section 5 of the Limitation Act, 1963 are applicable to an application challenging an award, under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996.