A Division Bench of Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Bivas Pattanayak noted that in sexual offences, there could be variety of reasons for delay in lodging of an FIR.
“The FIR is never an encyclopedia rather it is information made at the first instance which sets the criminal law into motion. Criminal courts should not be fastidious with mere omissions in the first information statements, since such statements cannot be expected to be a chronicle of every detail of what happened nor to contain an exhaustive catalogue of events which took place,” the Court said.
Omissions in FIRs and first information statements will not be fatal to the case, the Court underscored.
The Court further opined that in a traditional, non-permissive Indian society, a victim girl might be reluctant to admit of any incident that would reflect on her chastity.
“The victim girl belonging to a traditional non-permissive Indian society would be extremely reluctant to admit occurrence of any incident that would reflect upon her chastity, leading to being looked down upon and ostracized by the society. Therefore her not informing to anyone under the circumstances cannot detract from her reliability,” the Court observed.
Source: Barandbench
