An FIR is not granted. It is registered.

Not granted, registered

The language people use about this tells you how badly it is understood. "I applied for an FIR." "They did not give me an FIR." "My FIR was rejected." Each of those sentences describes a permission being sought and withheld.

That is not what an FIR is. An FIR is a record — the first information, written down. You are not asking for anything. You are giving information, and the officer's function is to record it.

Which changes how you should stand at that counter. Not asking a favour. Not making a case for why your problem deserves attention. Giving information about a cognizable offence to the person whose duty is to write it down.

What the duty actually is

Stated carefully, because the careful version is the useful one.

Where information is given to an officer in charge of a police station and that information discloses the commission of a cognizable offence, the law requires it to be recorded. The officer does not weigh whether the complaint is worth pursuing, whether the complainant is sympathetic, or whether the matter might resolve itself.

What the officer may properly do:

• Satisfy himself about what offence, if any, the information discloses.
• Record the information in the form and register the law prescribes.
• Transmit it to the station with jurisdiction where it belongs elsewhere.
• In a limited set of situations, make a preliminary enquiry into whether a cognizable offence is disclosed at all — dealt with in its own section below.

What he may not do:

• Decline because the matter seems small.
• Decline because the offence happened in another area.
• Decline because he thinks you should settle.
• Substitute a written application for registration.
• Make registration conditional on anything — a payment, a recommendation, a witness, a wait.

We are deliberately not citing section numbers anywhere on this page. The criminal procedure and substantive criminal law in India were replaced by new legislation, the numbering changed, and a page quoting the old numbers would be confidently wrong in a way that costs somebody an argument at a counter. What has not changed is the substance above.

The fork, and the two worlds

Everything in this subject hangs on one question, asked once, at the beginning:

Is the offence cognizable, or non-cognizable?

That single binary decides who can act, what document gets made, whether anybody investigates, and what you have to do next. The two answers lead to worlds that barely resemble each other, and the rest of this section describes them side by side so that you can tell which one you are in.

Look at the last two rows. The reason so many people feel the system has failed them is that they were in the second column and pushing for a first-column outcome, or in the first column and accepted a second-column document.

World one: cognizable

Here the machinery starts without anybody's permission, and that is the point of the classification.

What follows registration:

1. The FIR is recorded and numbered, and a copy is given to you free.
2. It is forwarded to the Magistrate having jurisdiction.
3. An investigating officer is assigned.
4. Statements are recorded, documents collected, places visited, things seized.
5. Arrest may be made, subject to the law's own safeguards about when it is necessary.
6. The investigation ends either in a report to the court that there is a case to answer, or in a closure report.

Your role in all of this is smaller than people expect and more important than they realise. You are the source of the first version and of the documents. You are not the investigator and you cannot direct the investigation. What you can do is keep the record clean, answer in writing, and follow up in writing.

World two: non-cognizable

A different shape entirely, and the thing to understand is that nothing here is a refusal, even though it feels like one.

What happens:

1. The information is entered in the station's register of non-cognizable cases.
2. You are given a copy of that entry. Ask for it; it is your record that you reported.
3. You are referred to the Magistrate, because the police cannot investigate this on their own.
4. If the Magistrate orders an investigation, the police then investigate as they would in a cognizable case.
5. Alternatively, you may proceed by way of a complaint to the Magistrate directly, which is a different route again.

So the entry is not the end of the road. It is the first step of a road that runs through a court rather than through a police station. Our criminal complaint service deals with the complaint route, and the drafting there is a different exercise from writing information for an FIR.

Working out which it is

The classification is set by law for each offence, and it is not a matter of opinion or of how badly you were affected. Which means this is a question with an answer, and it is worth getting before you go anywhere.

How to approach it honestly:

• Describe what happened, not what it felt like. "He did not return my money" and "he took my money by pretending to be somebody he was not" are different facts with different classifications.
• The classification follows the offence, not the amount. A small theft and a large one can be the same classification; a large debt and a small fraud are not.
• Force, dishonesty at the outset, threat, and harm to a person are the sorts of elements that tend to put a matter in the first column.
• A broken promise, an unpaid bill, a disputed account tend not to, by themselves.
• Some offences are classified either way depending on circumstances, which is precisely where advice is worth having.

We are not reproducing a table of offences and classifications, for two reasons. The law was recently recast and a stale table is worse than none. And the honest answer in a borderline case depends on facts a table cannot hold — which is the work, and it is the first thing we do.

The zero FIR

One of the most useful things in Indian criminal procedure and one of the least known, which is why it is worth its own section.

Information about a cognizable offence can be recorded at any police station, regardless of where the offence took place. That station registers it, and then transfers it to the station with territorial jurisdiction, where it is taken on that station's own numbers.

Why this exists: because the alternative is somebody being sent across a city, or across a state, at the exact moment when the thing to do is record the information and start. It exists for travellers, for people who have moved, for offences that happened somewhere else, and for the person standing at the nearest counter at two in the morning.

What it means for you:

• Go to the nearest station. You do not have to establish where the offence happened before you can report it.
• Say the words. Asking for the information to be recorded and transferred is a reasonable request that officers deal with routinely.
• Get the copy. The same entitlement applies.
• Follow the transfer. Note which station it has gone to and get the new number once it is taken on file there, because that is the number you will quote from then on.

"This is not our area"

The commonest refusal, and the easiest one to answer, which is why it deserves naming explicitly.

It is not a lawful reason to decline to record information about a cognizable offence. The zero FIR exists precisely so that territory is not an obstacle at the moment of reporting.

What to do when you hear it, in order:

1. Say, calmly: "I understand. Please record it and transfer it to the station with jurisdiction." That one sentence resolves it more often than anything else.
2. If that is refused, ask for the refusal to be recorded, and ask for the name and the number of the officer.
3. Hand over your written complaint anyway, and ask for an acknowledgement with a date stamp on your copy.
4. Do not argue past that point. You have what you need for the next rung and arguing adds nothing.
5. Go to the station with jurisdiction if that is practical, and start the written escalation if it is not.

"Give an application"

The most effective refusal, because it does not feel like one. You are not sent away. You are asked to write something, which you do, and you leave feeling that a process has started. Frequently nothing has.

What to understand:

• A written complaint is not an FIR. An FIR is recorded in a particular register, numbered, forwarded to the Magistrate, and triggers an investigation. An application in a file does none of those things.
• A written complaint is still worth giving. It is dated, it fixes your version, and acknowledged it becomes evidence that you reported.
• So do both. Give the written complaint, get it acknowledged, and continue to ask for the FIR.
• Ask one specific question before you leave: "Will an FIR be registered on this, and what is the number?" The answer, whatever it is, tells you which rung you are on.

Our police complaint drafting service prepares that written complaint properly, which matters more here than anywhere — because if the application is going to be the only document that exists for a while, it had better disclose the offence clearly.

"Settle it between yourselves"

Sometimes offered kindly and sometimes not, and in either case it is your decision and not the officer's.

There is nothing wrong with settling a dispute. Many disputes should be settled, and a settlement reached in a week is frequently better for everybody than a case that runs for years. What is not right is being steered away from registration by the person whose function is to register.

How to handle it:

• If you genuinely want to settle, do it on your own terms, in writing, outside the station, with what each side is giving up written down. A verbal compromise at a counter protects nobody.
• If you do not, say so once, plainly, and without hostility: "I would like the FIR registered, please."
• Do not sign anything describing a compromise you have not actually made, or a statement saying you do not wish to proceed, unless that is true.
• Be aware that some offences can be compounded and others cannot, so "we have settled" does not always end a matter — which is another reason to put a settlement in writing with advice rather than nodding at a counter.

When an enquiry comes first

For completeness and for honesty, because this is the one place where a delay before registration can be legitimate.

There are limited situations in which an officer may make a preliminary enquiry into whether the information discloses a cognizable offence at all, rather than registering immediately. The enquiry is into whether a cognizable offence is disclosed — not into whether the complaint is true, and not into whether it is worth pursuing.

What this means practically:

• It is narrow. It is not a general licence to look into things before deciding whether to register.
• It is time-bound and recorded. An enquiry is not an open-ended parking space, and the fact of it should be on the record.
• You can ask for it in writing. "Is a preliminary enquiry being conducted, and is that recorded?" is a fair question and the answer is informative either way.
• It does not stop you escalating. If an enquiry is being used as a reason for indefinite inaction, the written ladder is still available.

Why we mention it at all: because a page that says "registration is always immediate, no exceptions" would set you up to accuse an officer of wrongdoing in a situation where he is acting properly. Knowing the real shape of the rule makes you more effective, not less.

Writing the information

Whether it becomes an FIR, an application, or a complaint to a Magistrate, the same document does the work, and it either discloses an offence clearly or it does not. This is the part we are actually useful for.

What a good one does:

1. Starts with who you are and how you can be reached.
2. States what happened chronologically, in short numbered paragraphs, one event per paragraph.
3. Is specific about date, time and place for each event. "Last month" is not a fact. "On a stated date at about a stated time at a stated address" is.
4. Names the persons involved as far as you can, with descriptions where you cannot name them.
5. States what was said and done, in plain words, including the words used where words matter.
6. Lists what was taken, damaged or lost, with particulars and value where relevant.
7. Names witnesses and says where they can be found.
8. Lists the documents attached, numbered, and refers to them in the text.
9. Explains any delay, in its own paragraph, before anybody asks.
10. Ends with what you are asking for — that information be recorded and an FIR registered.

What to leave out

Just as important, and much harder, because what you most want to write is what weakens it.

• Adjectives. "Brutally", "shamelessly", "clearly a fraud". Write what was done; the reader will supply the adjective.
• Legal conclusions. Do not say which offence has been committed or quote provisions. State facts; the classification is for others.
• History unrelated to the offence. A decade of family grievance in a complaint about one incident makes the incident look like one more round of a feud.
• Anything you are not sure of. A wrong detail stated confidently does more damage than a gap honestly flagged. Where you are unsure, say "to the best of my recollection".
• Threats and demands. "If this is not done I will go to the media" belongs nowhere in this document.
• Anybody you are naming on suspicion alone. Naming a person in an FIR has consequences for them, and naming somebody you cannot connect to the facts weakens everything else you say.
• Private material about third parties, including images and recordings of other people, which should not be in this file at all.

And one piece of discipline worth more than all of the above: do not exaggerate a true complaint. It is the most common self-inflicted wound in this entire subject. A genuine grievance stated accurately is strong. The same grievance with one invented detail is a case about the invented detail.

Explaining a delay

Report as soon as you can. Where you have not, the gap will be asked about, so answer it in the document rather than at a counter.

What counts as a real explanation, with something to support it:

• You did not know the offence had occurred until a stated date — which is extremely common with anything involving documents or money.
• You were pursuing the matter with the other side, with correspondence to show it.
• You were ill, travelling, or dealing with a bereavement.
• You were afraid, with a reason that can be described.
• You went to another authority first, in good faith, and were redirected.
• You were a minor at the time, or dependent on somebody connected with the matter.

What does not help: no explanation at all; an explanation that does not cover the whole gap; and an explanation constructed afterwards that the correspondence contradicts. If part of the delay is simply that you did not get round to it, say that. An honest partial explanation reads better than a tidy false one.

The first hour at the station

Nobody describes this part and it is the part people are nervous about. So here is roughly what the hour looks like, in order, written as it actually happens rather than as procedure.

You arrive and wait. Usually at a desk near the entrance, usually with other people's business happening around you. This is normal and not a sign of anything. Take somebody with you if you can.

You are asked what happened. Verbally, quickly, probably while somebody else is talking. This is the moment the written complaint earns its fee: hand it over and say "it is all written here". A person reading two pages reaches a different conclusion from a person listening to a distressed summary.

Somebody reads it, or skims it. Expect questions, often blunt ones, sometimes sceptical ones. Answer them. Scepticism at this stage is not hostility; it is somebody working out what offence is disclosed.

A decision is taken about registration. Either it is recorded, or you are told something — one of the three sentences dealt with earlier.

If it is recorded, your account is typed or written into the register's form. You will be asked to sign it. Before you sign, read it. All of it. This is dealt with in its own section below because it is the single most important minute of the whole visit.

You are given a copy. Free. Do not leave without it.

You may be asked to come back, or to come with somebody, or to produce a document. Note down exactly what was asked for and by whom.

What you hand over

Bring copies, not originals, with the originals in your bag in case somebody wants to see them.

• The written complaint, signed and dated, in two copies.
• Your identity and address document.
• Documents the complaint refers to, numbered to match, as copies.
• A list of what you are handing over, on a single sheet, signed by you — and ask for that sheet to be acknowledged. This is the step nobody takes and it is the one that prevents the later conversation about what was submitted.
• Photographs or recordings, where relevant, on a separate medium with a list describing each. Keep your own copies untouched.
• Contact details for witnesses, with their permission.

What not to hand over: originals you cannot replace, anything you have altered, and private material about people who are not part of the complaint. And where documents are scattered across years and formats, get them into one numbered indexed set before you go — our document digitisation work exists for exactly that, and a numbered bundle is treated differently from a bag of paper.

What never to sign

Short, blunt, and the section to remember if you remember nothing else.

If you do not read the language the document is written in, say so and ask for it to be read out to you, and have your companion listen. There is nothing improper in that request and it is far better than signing in hope.

And if something has already been signed that you should not have signed, that is a situation to take advice on immediately rather than to leave — it is usually addressable, and it gets harder with time.

The free copy

You are entitled to a copy of the FIR, free of cost. Not on request to a senior officer, not after an application, not for a fee. Free, and at the time.

Why it matters so much more than it sounds:

• It is the number. Every later step — a status enquiry, a representation, an application, an insurance claim, an employer's query — begins with the FIR number and date.
• It fixes the version. What the FIR says your account was is what everybody afterwards reads it as.
• It is proof the matter exists. Banks, insurers, employers and courts ask for it.
• It records the offences stated. Which is how you find out what the matter has been registered as, and that is sometimes a surprise.
• It is the thing you will lose. Scan it the same day.

Where the FIR has been registered and you have somehow left without a copy, ask in writing for one, quoting the date and the station. In many states FIRs for most categories are also published online, which is worth checking before making a trip.

Reading it before you leave

Two minutes of reading, done in the building, prevents most of the problems in the rest of this page. What to check, in this order:

1. The date, time and place of the offence. Not the date of the report — the date of the event.
2. Your own name, address and contact details.
3. The names of the persons complained against, spelled as you gave them, and nobody added or dropped.
4. The sequence of what happened. Read the narrative as a story and see whether it is your story.
5. What was taken, damaged or lost, and the particulars.
6. The witnesses, named.
7. Anything stated as admitted or settled that you did not say.
8. The offences under which it has been registered, which tells you how the matter has been understood.

Correcting an error the same day

If the record is wrong, deal with it immediately. "We will correct it later" is not a plan, because the FIR, once registered, is not edited.

What to do:

1. Say so before you leave, politely and specifically: this date is wrong, this sentence is not what I said.
2. Put it in writing the same day. A short signed and dated statement: "In the FIR bearing a stated number dated a stated date, the following particulars require correction, and the correct position is as follows."
3. Hand it in and get it acknowledged on your copy.
4. Keep it with the FIR copy, permanently, as a pair.
5. Mention it in any later representation, so that nobody later treats the uncorrected FIR as your settled account.

That supplementary statement does not rewrite the FIR, and it does not need to. What it does is put your actual account on the record on the same day, which is exactly what you would otherwise be unable to prove months later.

The ladder of refusal

If registration is refused, there is a route above the counter, and it works. It works best when climbed in order, because each rung's strength comes from the dated paper the rung below it produced.

Five rungs, and the rest of this section gives you, for each one, what to say and what to hand over. That is the whole trick: at every rung there is a specific sentence and a specific document, and improvising instead is what makes people feel the system is closed to them.

Rung one: ask, and record the refusal

What to say: "I am giving information about a cognizable offence. Please record it. If it belongs to another station, please record and transfer it."

If refused: "I understand you are declining to register. Could I have your name and number, and could the refusal be noted? Please also acknowledge receipt of my written complaint."

What to hand over: your written complaint, in two copies, with the list of enclosures.

What you leave with: one acknowledged copy with a date on it, and the officer's name. That is all you need from this rung.

What not to do: argue, raise your voice, threaten, or record anybody covertly. You are building a file, not winning a confrontation, and a documented calm refusal is worth more than an undocumented argument you won.

Rung two: the station house officer

Often the whole problem is that you were talking to the wrong person. The officer in charge of the station is the one on whom the duty rests, and a counter conversation is not the same as his decision.

What to say: "May I see the officer in charge? I have given information about a cognizable offence and I would like to know whether an FIR will be registered."

What to hand over: the same written complaint, addressed to him by designation, with your acknowledged copy from rung one in hand.

What you leave with: either an FIR number, or a clear answer that it will not be registered — which is itself what rung three needs.

A reasonable proportion of refusals do not survive this rung, for an ordinary reason: the counter was managing a queue, and the officer in charge is taking a decision he is answerable for.

Rung three: the senior officer, by post

The most underused rung, and the most effective one. The law provides that where the officer in charge of a station refuses to record information, the substance of that information may be sent in writing and by post to the Superintendent of Police, or the equivalent senior officer for the district.

Why by post: because posting creates a dated, independent record that does not depend on anybody acknowledging anything. Send it by registered or speed post with acknowledgement, and keep the receipt.

What the letter contains:

1. Who you are and how to reach you.
2. The substance of the information — the same chronological account, in full.
3. The date you attended the station, which station, and whom you spoke to.
4. That registration was refused, and what reason was given if any.
5. A copy of the written complaint you handed in, and of the acknowledgement if you got one.
6. A request that the information be recorded and investigated, or that an officer be directed to do so.

What you keep: the postal receipt, the tracking record, and the acknowledgement when it arrives. Those three things are the foundation of rung four. Our complaint representation service prepares and sends this, and follows it up on a schedule rather than in bursts.

Rung four: the Magistrate

Where the station and the senior officer have both produced nothing, the route runs to a court, which can direct an investigation.

What this involves, at the level a page can honestly describe:

• An application to the Magistrate having jurisdiction, setting out the information and what has happened at the earlier rungs.
• Your own affidavit supporting it. This is a sworn statement and it has to be accurate.
• The documents — the written complaint, the acknowledgement, the postal receipt, the tracking record, any reply.
• A hearing, at which the court considers whether to direct an investigation or to proceed in another way.
• Alternatively, the complaint route, where instead of directing the police the court takes the complaint itself — a different path with different consequences, and the choice between them is a real one.

This is a court proceeding. The drafting is documentation and we do it; the appearance and the choice of route are advocacy.

Court work is for your advocate, whose fee is engaged and paid by you directly; we do not quote, collect or share it.

Rung five: the High Court

Mentioned for completeness, and with a caution.

Where everything below has failed — no registration, no action on the escalation, and no relief from the Magistrate — a writ petition to the High Court is available. It is a real remedy and it is used.

The caution is about expectations. A High Court is not an alternative to the first four rungs; it is what exists when they have been exhausted and documented. A petition that arrives without the paper trail below it tends to be sent back down to use it. Which is, once again, the argument for the postal receipt.

Whether your facts justify going there, and what exactly to ask for, is your advocate's judgement on the whole file.

Court work is for your advocate, whose fee is engaged and paid by you directly; we do not quote, collect or share it.

After it is registered

The relief of getting the FIR registered is usually followed by a long, quiet period that people find harder than the refusal. So it is worth knowing what is and is not happening.

• An investigating officer is handling it, along with a number of other matters.
• You may be called to give a fuller statement, to identify something, or to produce documents. Go, take copies, and keep a note of each visit.
• You will probably not be updated unless you ask. This is not indifference; it is how a workload runs.
• You cannot direct the investigation, choose who is arrested, or require a particular step.
• Arrest is not automatic and the absence of an arrest is not evidence that nothing is being done; the law has its own safeguards about when arrest is necessary.
• It ends in a report to the court — either that there is a case to answer, or a closure.

What you can do is keep the record straight and ask in writing, which is the next section.

The written status enquiry

The single most useful habit available to a complainant, and almost nobody does it. Repeated visits to a station leave no trace. A letter does.

What it looks like: half a page, addressed to the investigating officer by designation, with a copy to the senior officer. It quotes the FIR number and date, states what has happened since (including any visit you made and any document you supplied), asks for the present status, and asks whether anything is required from you.

How to use it:

• Send it periodically, on a schedule, not when you are frustrated. A regular monthly enquiry reads as diligence; six in a week reads as something else.
• Keep every copy with its dispatch proof, in order.
• Copy the senior officer, which is what gives it weight.
• Be courteous and factual. No complaints about the officer, no deadlines, no threats.
• Note what each reply says, or that there was none.

Those accumulated letters are also the file that any later step is built on — a representation, an application about inaction, or an objection to a closure. Our complaint representation service runs this follow-up as a standing exercise, which is mostly what it is for.

If it is closed

An investigation can end with a report to the court that no case is made out. This feels final and it is not necessarily the end.

What to know:

• A closure report goes to the court, not to the police's own drawer. It is for the court to accept it or not.
• You are entitled to notice and to be heard before a closure is accepted, which is the stage at which it matters that you know it is happening — another reason for the periodic written enquiry.
• You can object, by a protest petition, which sets out why the conclusion is wrong and what material was not considered.
• Further investigation can be directed, where there is reason for it.
• All of this is court work, and the strength of it comes from the documents you have kept throughout.

Court work is for your advocate, whose fee is engaged and paid by you directly; we do not quote, collect or share it.

What an FIR will not do

Here is the conversation worth having before you spend a year on this, and it is better had now than in month eleven.

An FIR starts a criminal investigation. That is the whole of what it starts. Specifically, it will not:

• Get your money back. A criminal case is not a recovery mechanism. Even a conviction does not, by itself, put money in your hand.
• Convict anybody. Registration is the first page of a process that runs through investigation, charge and trial, and most of that is years away from the counter you are standing at.
• Enforce an agreement. If somebody has broken a contract, the remedy for that is a civil one, and no amount of criminal pressure substitutes for it.
• Get somebody arrested on demand. Arrest is a decision taken within the law's own constraints, and it is not yours to require.
• Settle a property or family dispute. It can run alongside one and it does not decide it.
• Protect you by itself. If you are in danger, that needs immediate and separate attention, not a pending case number.
• Stay under your control. Once registered it is not your document, and you cannot withdraw it by changing your mind.

Civil, or criminal

Since "this is a civil matter" is both a common genuine answer and a common way of declining, it is worth being able to tell them apart.

Notice the pattern down the middle. The same transaction can fall on either side depending on what was in the mind of the other person at the outset, and whether force, deception or a false document was used. That is why the honest answer in a borderline case is "it depends on facts", and why settling it on day one is worth more than persistence on day thirty.

Where the answer is civil, our civil suit drafting service is the right door, and a legal notice is frequently the right first step. Where it is both, both can run, and the sequencing is worth thinking about rather than firing everything at once.

If one is registered against you

A short section, because the right answer is short.

Stop reading general guidance and speak to a criminal advocate today. Not tomorrow, and not after you have explained yourself to anybody.

In the meantime, and these are the things people get wrong in the first forty-eight hours:

• Do not approach the complainant or anybody connected with them, in person or through a relative.
• Do not post about it anywhere, and do not discuss it in a group.
• Do not destroy, delete or tidy anything — not messages, not documents, not records. That turns one problem into two.
• Do not give a statement or sign anything without advice.
• Do collect your own documents and your own chronology, with dates, while it is fresh.
• Do ask your advocate about protective remedies — our anticipatory bail application and quashing petition services prepare those documents, and whether either fits is entirely a question for counsel on your facts.

Court work is for your advocate, whose fee is engaged and paid by you directly; we do not quote, collect or share it.

The cross-complaint

Worth anticipating, because it happens often and it surprises people.

When you register an FIR, the other side frequently registers one against you. Sometimes because they genuinely have a grievance of their own, often because it is the standard response, and occasionally because somebody advised them to create a bargaining position.

What to understand about it:

• It does not cancel yours. Two complaints can exist and both can be investigated.
• It changes your own conduct requirements. From that point you are a person against whom a complaint exists, and the paragraph above applies to you as well.
• It makes your own accuracy matter more. Any exaggeration in your complaint becomes the first thing examined.
• It is not a reason to withdraw. If your grievance is genuine, a retaliatory complaint is a predictable cost and not a reason to abandon it.
• It is a reason to have an advocate. A matter with complaints running both ways is no longer a documentation exercise.

Never a false one

Said directly, because the question gets asked and sometimes the thought is already there.

Giving false information to the police is itself an offence. A complaint known to be false exposes you to prosecution, to a civil claim by the person you named, and to a costs order. And it does not do the thing it was meant to do.

The nearer and more dangerous version of the same mistake is the one honest people make: exaggerating a true complaint. Adding a threat that was not made, a weapon that was not present, a figure larger than the loss, a person who was not there. It feels like strengthening the case. What it does is move the case from "what was done to this person" to "whether this person is telling the truth". Tell it exactly as it happened, including the parts that are less dramatic than you would like.

Categories with their own route

Some matters have their own procedures, their own protections and their own urgency, and they should not be approached from a general guide. Named here so that you go to the right place rather than reading on.

• Sexual offences. A special procedure applies, it is time-sensitive, and registration cannot be refused. Speak to a criminal advocate immediately. The women's helpline 1091 and the general emergency number 112 can assist at once, and support services exist to accompany a complainant through the process.
• Offences against children. A dedicated law and procedure applies, with its own obligations on everybody including the police. The child helpline is 1098. Act immediately and take advice; do not wait and do not handle it informally within a family or an institution.
• Domestic violence. There is a dedicated legal route with its own protections and officers, which can run alongside or instead of a general complaint. The women's helpline 181 can assist immediately, and our domestic violence case service covers the documentation.
• Offences against members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. A special law applies with its own procedure and its own designated officers, and the matter should be taken up under it rather than generally.
• Senior citizens and persons with disabilities. Dedicated helplines and, in many places, dedicated cells exist, and they are usually faster than a general counter.
• Cyber offences and online financial fraud. A separate and genuinely urgent channel, because speed determines whether money can be stopped at all. Our cyber crime complaint service covers it, and the helpline is 1930.

We have deliberately given no detail about any of these beyond where to go. Each of them deserves specific advice on the facts, and a general page that tried to explain the process would do more harm than good.

What this page does not cover

In the interest of not wasting your time:

• Criminal strategy of any kind. What to allege for effect, how to position a case, what to say in a statement. Not here and not from us.
• Bail, custody and arrest procedure from the accused's side beyond "get an advocate today".
• Trial, evidence and conviction. Years away from this page.
• Anything about the merits of your matter. We do not know your facts.
• The specific procedures for the special categories above.
• Section numbers, for the reason given earlier — the law was recast and stale numbers are worse than none.

Lost property is not this

A large share of people who come asking for an FIR do not need one, and this is the commonest case.

You have lost documents, a phone, a wallet, a bag. Nobody took them; you left them somewhere. What you need is a lost-property report, which is a simpler and different thing, available in many states online, and which is what the passport office, the bank, the insurer and the duplicate-issuing authority actually ask for.

Why it matters not to confuse them:

• An FIR for something nobody stole is hard to get and unnecessary.
• The report is usually immediate, sometimes online, and that is the document the next office wants.
• Where something was stolen rather than lost, that is a different matter and an FIR is appropriate — and you should say "stolen" only if it was.
• Falsely reporting a loss as a theft, for an insurance claim, is the sort of thing that ends very badly.

Our lost document report service handles it, and our online FIR assistance service covers the online channels where your state offers them.

A missing person is immediate

Short, because the only message is urgency.

There is no waiting period before reporting a person missing. Not twenty-four hours, not any number of hours. Anybody who tells you to wait and see is wrong, and the first hours matter more than anything else in this guide.

What to take with you, immediately:

• A recent clear photograph, and a second one if you have it.
• A description: height, build, clothing when last seen, anything distinctive.
• When and where they were last seen, and by whom.
• Their phone number, and any detail about the phone.
• Identity documents, or copies.
• Any medical requirement, in brief, because it affects urgency.
• Names and numbers of people they might contact.

Our missing person complaint service covers the report and the follow-up. Where the missing person is a child, treat it as the most urgent category there is and use 1098 alongside the station.

Keeping the file

Everything on this page runs on documents, so keep them as one ordered set from day one.

• The written complaint, every version, dated.
• The acknowledged copy from every visit.
• The FIR copy, and any supplementary statement correcting it.
• The escalation letter, with the postal receipt and the tracking record.
• Every status enquiry, with dispatch proof and any reply.
• A dated log of every visit and call — who, when, what was said, what was asked for.
• Copies of everything handed over, with the signed list.
• Court papers, if it reaches that.

Who arrives at our desk

Four situations, and the first words differ for each.

Most often, somebody who has just been turned away and is both angry and embarrassed. The first useful thing to say to them is that the refusal was probably not lawful and that there is a route above that counter. The second is a question: what exactly happened, and is it cognizable? A meaningful share of these are resolved by a properly drafted complaint handed in at the same station the next morning.

Second, somebody who has been given a register entry in a non-cognizable matter and has been waiting for the police to act. Nothing has gone wrong and nothing is going to happen. Their next move is towards a court, and knowing that saves them months.

Third, somebody with a registered FIR and silence for several months. Their answer is the written status enquiry, done on a schedule, copied upwards — and the file of those letters, which is what any later step needs.

And fourth, somebody whose real grievance is a debt, a flat or a broken agreement, and who has been told an FIR will frighten the other side into paying. The honest answer there is that it usually will not, that it will cost them a year, and that the civil route is the one that produces the money. That conversation ends without a fee and it is the right conversation.

Papers for this

What we need in the first conversation, which is short because this is usually urgent.

• What happened, in your own words, with dates. A voice note is fine.
• Names and whatever you know about the persons involved.
• What you have already done — which station, when, whom you spoke to, what was said, and anything you handed in or signed.
• Any document already generated — an acknowledged complaint, a register entry, an FIR copy, a reply.
• Your documents relating to the matter, in whatever order they are in.
• Witnesses, and whether they are willing.
• What you actually want — accountability, your money, protection, or the record. This changes the advice more than anything else on the list.

That last item is the one worth thinking about before you call. The right route depends on it, and the answer is not always the one people start with.

The drafting we do

1. The classification question answered — cognizable or not, on your facts, in writing, with the consequence spelt out.
2. The civil-or-criminal question answered honestly, including where the answer is that this is not a criminal matter.
3. The information drafted — chronological, specific, numbered, with the enclosures listed and the delay explained, and without the adjectives.
4. Station preparation — what to say, what to hand over, what to read before signing, what never to sign, and what to leave with.
5. The escalation to the senior officer, drafted and sent by post, with the receipts kept.
6. The papers for the Magistrate route, including the affidavit and the annexures, where it comes to that.
7. The supplementary statement, where the FIR records your account wrongly — same day.
8. Written status enquiries on a schedule, copied upwards, with the file kept in order — our complaint representation work.
9. The file itself, indexed and dated, handed to you and to your advocate if one becomes necessary.

Our turnaround is Same day – 2 days, because by the time somebody reaches this page it is usually urgent.

The station, and the court

The line, drawn plainly.

The station is documentation. Drafting the information, preparing you, going over what to sign, escalating in writing, following up — that is our work and it is most of what decides whether a complaint gets registered at all.

The court is advocacy. An application to a Magistrate for a direction to investigate, a complaint taken by the court, a protest petition against a closure, a writ petition, bail, quashing — these are proceedings, argued by an advocate, and the choice between them is a judgement on your whole file rather than on a page.

What we do at that boundary: prepare the documents, hand over an indexed dated file, and say plainly that it is time for counsel. An advocate starting from an ordered file with a postal receipt in it is in a materially better position than one starting from an account of what somebody said at a counter.

Court work is for your advocate, whose fee is engaged and paid by you directly; we do not quote, collect or share it.

Where we stop short

And one thing we will keep saying even when it loses the work: where the grievance is really about money or an agreement, we will tell you that the criminal route will not produce it, and point you at the one that might.

Our charge here

Our part for FIR guidance — the classification question, the civil-or-criminal question, the information drafted properly, station preparation, the written escalation with its receipts, and the file kept in order — is ₹1,500, with a turnaround of Same day – 2 days.

What is separate:

• Nothing to the police. There is no fee for registering an FIR and no fee for the copy. Nobody should be collecting either from you.
• Postage and registered-post charges for the escalation, which are small and worth every rupee.
• Notarial costs for an affidavit, where the Magistrate route is used.
• Court fees, where a proceeding is filed.
• An advocate's fee, engaged and paid by you directly.
• Translation, where documents are not in the language required.

Court work is for your advocate, whose fee is engaged and paid by you directly; we do not quote, collect or share it.

Much of what frightens people here turns out to be a documentation question, and some of it is squarely an advocate's. Working out which of the two you are holding, before spending anything, is what online consultation — a consultation is a sorting, not an answer is for.

Questions people actually ask