An informant may challenge a police final report through a protest petition seeking cognizance or further investigation.

On 13 December 2024, the petitioner’s husband, Jay Prakash Adhikari, was travelling in an auto-rickshaw bearing registration no. AS-10/BC-2004 when another vehicle, bearing registration no. AS-10/E-3313, allegedly driven rashly and negligently, collided with it near Nilkantapur under Bazaricherra Police Station, Sribhumi. The offending vehicle fled, and the petitioner’s husband later succumbed to his injuries. An FIR was registered as Bazaricherra P.S. Case No. 209/2024 under Sections 281 and 106 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.

During investigation, the Investigating Officer reported that the identity of the driver of the offending vehicle could not be ascertained. The Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Sribhumi, thereafter called for the case diary and directed the Investigating Officer to identify the offending vehicle and submit the final report expeditiously. Alleging that proper further investigation had not been conducted, the petitioner approached the High Court.

During the pendency of the writ petition, the State informed the Court that the Investigating Officer had submitted Final Report No. 07/2025 dated 30 April 2025, stating that sufficient evidence had been found against the driver of vehicle no. AS-10/E-3313.

1. Whether, after submission of the final report by the police, the petitioner could seek further investigation directly through a writ petition, or should pursue the remedies available before the jurisdictional Magistrate?

2. Whether the Magistrate, upon receiving a police report under Section 193(2) of the BNSS, may reject or disagree with the police conclusion, take cognizance, issue process, or direct further investigation?

3. Whether notice and an opportunity of hearing are mandatory for the informant where the Magistrate proposes to accept a final report and drop the proceedings or decline to proceed against some accused persons?

The Court applied Section 193(2) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, concerning submission of the police report after investigation, and Section 210(1)(b), which empowers a Magistrate to take cognizance of an offence on a police report even where the police conclusion is adverse to prosecution.

Upon receiving a final report, the Magistrate may accept it and close the proceedings, disagree with it and take cognizance and issue process, or direct further investigation. The Magistrate is not bound by the Investigating Officer’s conclusion and may independently assess the materials collected during investigation.

Although the Magistrate may also follow the procedures under Sections 223 and 225 of the BNSS, those procedures are not mandatory where cognizance is taken under Section 210(1)(b).

Where the Magistrate proposes to accept the final report and terminate the proceedings, or declines to proceed against certain persons named in the FIR, notice and an opportunity of hearing to the informant are mandatory.

The informant may also file a Protest Petition challenging the police conclusions and seeking cognizance or further investigation.

The Court noted that Final Report No. 07/2025 had already been submitted before the jurisdictional Magistrate. Consequently, the immediate question was not whether the High Court should itself order further investigation, but whether the petitioner had an effective statutory remedy before the Magistrate.

Under the BNSS, the Magistrate was required to independently consider the police report and the investigation materials and could either accept the final report, take cognizance notwithstanding the police conclusion, or direct further investigation.

Since it was unclear whether the petitioner had received notice or whether the final report had been accepted, the Court preserved her right to challenge the report by filing a Protest Petition and to seek further investigation before the Magistrate.

The Court therefore considered it unnecessary to adjudicate the petitioner’s grievance on merits in the writ proceedings.

The petitioner was granted liberty to file objections or a Protest Petition before the jurisdictional Magistrate and to seek rejection of the police conclusions, taking of cognizance, or further investigation, as legally permissible.

The photocopy of the Final Report was retained on the record and marked as Document “A.”