Writ Of Mandamus Can't Be Issued Compelling Police To Register FIR Without Complaint Being Made To Magistrate: Orissa High Court

The Orissa High Court has reiterated that a writ petition seeking issuance of the writ of mandamus to the police for registration a First Information Report (FIR) is not maintainable unless the grievance regarding non-registration of FIR is raised before the jurisdictional Magistrate by means of a complaint.

To put briefly the facts of the case, the prosecution alleged that the petitioner led a violent mob which tried to lynch three captive persons accused of committing robbery. On attempt being made by the police to rescue the detained persons, the petitioner allegedly instigated the mob to become even more violent and attacked the detained accused persons by entering into a club room, where they had been confined overnight.

The aforesaid act of the petitioner led to an FIR being lodged against him. To counter the accusations, the petitioner also lodged a complaint alleging illegalities committed by the police while making endeavour to control the mob. However, such complaint was not registered as an FIR. Being aggrieved by the same, the petitioner approached the High Court.

The question which arose for consideration before the Bench of Justice Chittaranjan Dash was whether a writ, specifically the writ of mandamus, can be issued directing/compelling police to register FIR in case the police refuse to register FIR on the basis of an information which discloses commission of a cognizable offence.

The Court reiterated the undisputed stance of law that whenever any information is received by the police about the alleged commission of a cognizable offence, it is duty-bound to register FIR. So far as maintainability of a writ petition for enforcing the aforesaid duty of the police was concerned, the Court referred to the decision of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Dr. Anjana Singh v. The State of Madhya Pradesh & Ors. (2024) wherein it was held that no writ can be issued to compel police to register FIR.

Reference was further made to the following observation of the Supreme Court in Sakiri Vasu v. State of Uttar Pradesh & Ors. (2007) –

“In this connection we would like to state that if a person has a grievance that the police station is not registering his FIR under Section 154 CrPC, then he can approach the Superintendent of Police under Section 154(3) CrPC by an application in writing. Even if that does not yield any satisfactory result in the sense that either the FIR is still not registered, or that even after registering it no proper investigation is held, it is open to the aggrieved person to file an application under Section 156 (3) CrPC before the learned Magistrate concerned.”

Justice Dash also clarified that any reference by the petitioner to the judgment in Lalita Kumari v. Govt. of U.P. & Ors. (2013) is misplaced since the decision does not pertain to the issue of entitlement to writ of mandamus for compelling the police to perform statutory duty under Section 154 CrPC (Section 173, BNSS) without availing remedy under Sections 156(3), CrPC (Section 175(3), BNSS), 190, CrPC (Section 210, BNSS), and 200, CrPC (Section 223, BNSS).

Resultantly, the Court was not inclined to issue any writ compelling the police to register the FIR. Rather, it asked the petitioner to approach the jurisdictional Magistrate by way of a complaint for redressal of his grievances.

Case Title: Dwaru Patra v. State of Odisha & Ors.

Case No: CRLMP No. 744 of 2025

Date of Judgment: August 13, 2025

Counsel for the Petitioner: Mr. P.K. Mishra, Advocate

Counsel for the Respondents: Mr. R.B. Dash, Additional Public Prosecutor

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Ori) 105

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