Non-Registration of FIR by Police Under Section 154 Cr.P.C. in Pakistan and Its Effects

Abstract

Section 154 of Pakistan’s Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 is designed to perform a simple but foundational task: when information relating to a cognizable offence reaches the officer in charge of a police station, that information must be reduced to writing, read over to the informant, signed, and entered in the prescribed register. In theory, that command marks the formal beginning of the criminal process. In practice, however, refusal or delay in the registration of First Information Reports (FIRs) remains one of the most damaging everyday failures of criminal justice in Pakistan. This article examines the law governing FIR registration, the reasons police officers refuse to register FIRs, and the effects of this refusal on victims, accused persons, courts, and society. It argues that non-registration is not a minor procedural irregularity but a structural denial of access to justice that undermines constitutional guarantees of life, liberty, dignity, due process, and fair trial. The article draws on the text of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Constitution of Pakistan, the Police Order, 2002, the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Act, 2022, reported case law including Sana Ullah, Khizar Hayat, Muhammad Bashir and Sughran Bibi, as well as recent scholarship and human-rights reports. It shows that superior courts have consistently held that police have no authority to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the truth of information before registration where a cognizable offence is disclosed. Yet the practice of informal filtering continues because of political pressure, corruption, fear of rising crime statistics, bias against vulnerable complainants, and the desire to use unrecorded detention and coercive settlement as substitutes for lawful investigation. The article concludes that meaningful reform requires digital registration systems, mandatory supervisory review of refusals, stronger use of remedies under sections 22-A and 22-B Cr.P.C., disciplinary and penal accountability for offending officers, victim-sensitive reporting procedures, and a culture shift within policing from gate keeping to lawful service.