New Delhi: A delay in lodging the first information report (FIR) on commission of an offence by itself cannot be a ground to discard the prosecution case, the Supreme Court has held.

Knowing Indian conditions for what they are, "we cannot expect villagers to rush to the police station immediately after the occurrence. Human nature as it is, the kith and kin who have witnessed the occurrence cannot be expected to act mechanically with all promptitude in giving the report to the police," said a Bench consisting of Justices S.B. Sinha and P.P. Naolekar said,

Quoting an earlier decision, it said: "At times, grief-stricken, it may not immediately occur to them that they should give a report. After all, it is but natural in these circumstances for them to take some time to go to the police station."

The Bench said, "The delay in lodging the FIR would put the court on its guard to search if any plausible explanation has been offered and, if offered, whether it is satisfactory."

No hard and fast rule

The judges said, "There is no hard and fast rule that any delay in lodging the FIR would automatically render the prosecution case doubtful." It necessarily depended on the facts and circumstances of each case. The nature of injuries, the number of victims, efforts made to provide medical aid, the distance of the hospital and the police station, etc, had to be taken into consideration.

In the instant case, the FIR on the death of a woman under suspicious circumstances was lodged at 7.30 p.m. on September 9, 1990 though it occurred at 1 p.m. the previous day. Her husband, his mother and elder brother were charged for offences under Sections 306 (abetment to suicide) and 498 A (cruelty to woman by husband or relative of husband) of the Indian Penal Code.

Appeal dismissed

The trial court convicted and sentenced the husband and his elder brother to undergo three-year imprisonment for abetment to suicide and acquitted his mother. The Bombay High Court confirmed the conviction.

Dismissing the appeal against this judgment, the Bench said, "We do not find that simply because the FIR was lodged with some delay, the allegations in the FIR are unworthy of credence or that the prosecution has falsely implicated the accused appellants in the commission of the crime. The prosecution has proved that the accused-appellants created such a difficult and hostile environment for the deceased that she was compelled to commit suicide."

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