Condonation of Delay

[Gopal Desikan]

Dear Sir, suppose a cognizable offence has taken place for which the time limitation is 3 years as prescribed by crpc. If I lodge a police complaint after 2.5 years (which is within the limitation period), do I still need to provide an explanation for the delay why I did not report it in these 2.5 years?

[Dr. Ashok Dhamija]

Legally, such a complaint would be well within the limitation period, so no formal explanation is needed. At the same time, an FIR registered after a delay of 2.5 years may be seen with some suspicion as to why the complaint was not given immediately after the offence occurred. It shows some sort of premeditation. Such delay reduces the value of the FIR, and its credibility goes down. For that purpose, you may have to explain the delay, in order to show that it was not premeditated, etc. In fact, there is a column in the FIR format that mentions the reasons for delay in lodging the FIR. In certain important offences (such as murder or other serious offences), even a delay of 24 hours can be considered as the one that diminishes the value of the FIR. That said, as I mentioned above, such FIR would be within limitation period and cannot be debarred, though it will have a diminished value.

     

---

Dr. Ashok Dhamija is a New Delhi based Supreme Court Advocate and author of law books. Read more about him by clicking here. List of his Forum Replies. List of his other articles. List of his Quora Answers. List of his YouTube Videos.

[Gopal Desikan]

Great reply. In great detail as well. I have never seen people (lawyers) giving such precise/detailed opinion before. Thanks and great stuff once again:-)

[Author]

Posts