First Information Report is a document registered by police when they receive information about an offense. Generally, it is a complaint registered by the victim or somebody else on their behalf. First Information Report has serial no, date of occurrence, time of occurrence, place of occurrence, contents of complaint etc. It is impossible for a police officer to say that this crime is not taking place in my police station territory. So they should take necessary actions without considering the jurisdiction.
Zero FIR is the one that is filed in any police station regardless of the place of incidence or jurisdiction. Commonly in FIR‘s are registered under the concerned police station but in Zero FIR any of the police stations can register the case and put the FIR serial number as zero and transmit it to the particular jurisdictional area.
Looking at the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code, if FIR is not filed within the territorial jurisdiction of a concerned Police Station, the Station House-in-Charge (SHO) of that particular Police Station cannot proceed with further investigation of the case and the FIR should be filed with a Police Station which has territorial jurisdiction to act over the case. But practically it is not always possible to adhere to the exact wording of the Criminal Procedure Code. Incidents like accidents, murder and rape require immediate action from the concerned authorities and rush to take samples, get information from eyewitnesses and get circumstantial details. A Zero FIR helps to take note of this initial action regardless of trying to figure out in which limits or territorial jurisdiction the crime/offense took place.
Put FIR irrespective of police station boundary. Anyone can complain about the Cognizable offense in the form orally or by writing to the police or telephonic, and nowadays it can be given online. The states like Tamilnadu, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Delhi, and Madhya Pradesh have online submission forums for online FIR.
You can file an FIR if you are the victim or you must know yourself regarding the offense that has been committed or if you are the witness. The most famous example of the zero FIR is the Asaram Bapu rape case, In this case, the place of occurrence falls under Jodhpur jurisdiction, but the case was registered at police station Kamla Market, Delhi. Then the case was transferred for further proceedings.
One of the drawbacks of the “Zero FIR” is that the police station does not have territorial jurisdiction in the case, may register FIR immediately for the satisfaction of the victim, and immediately transfer the case to the concerned police station without the proper preliminary inquiry.
