The Law Commission has recommended that registration of e-FIRs should be allowed for all cognisable offences in cases where the accused is unknown and extended for all cognisable offences attracting a jail term of up to three years where the accused is known.

In its report submitted to the government on Wednesday and made public on Friday, the panel said a limited roll-out of the e-FIR scheme in the initial phase would ensure that for the time being there is no disruption relating to the procedure adopted for reporting and investigation of serious offences.

Besides suggesting e-verification and mandatory declaration by the person lodging e-complaint or e-FIR, the panel proposed an added layer of safety to ensure the facility is not misused.

It said a minimum punishment of imprisonment and fine should be inflicted for false registration of e-complaints or e-FIR for which relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code can be amended.

It proposed setting up a centralised national portal to facilitate registration of e-FIRs.

The law panel also recommended that states may expand the list of offences for which e-FIRs are registered in future if the working of the system turns out to be effective.

The report "Amendment in Section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 for Enabling Online Registration of FIR" said e-FIRs will tackle long persisting issue of delay in the registration of FIRs and allow citizens to report crimes in real time.

In his letter to Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, Law Commission Chairman Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi said, "Due to the march of technology, means of communication have progressed in leaps and bounds. In such a landscape, clinging on to an archaic system of registering FIRs does not augur well for criminal reforms." The report said the scheme of registration of e-FIRs cannot not be allowed in all cases and cited a Supreme Court judgment which allowed the preliminary enquiry before registration of FIR.

The top court had held that "the scope of preliminary enquiry is not to verify the veracity or otherwise of the information received but only to ascertain whether the information reveals any cognisable offence".

The commission cautioned that a layman may not be aware of these legal intricacies and once registration of FIR by way of electronic means in all cases is allowed, it may cause extremely high investigative burden on police apart from curtailing its power to conduct preliminary enquiry in appropriate cases as is required under a clear mandate of the Supreme Court.

It said registration of e-complaint should be allowed for all non-cognisable offences as per section 155 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) as is being currently done in all the states and union territories.

To avoid false registration of e-complaints or e-FlRs and for the "constructive use" of the facility, it is important that the verification of complainant or informant is done using e-authentication techniques, the report said.

"This can be achieved by verifying mobile number through OTP (one-time passwor) for the purpose of registering e-FIR/e-Complaint and mandating the uploading of valid ID proof like Aadhaar or any other government approved ID," the report suggested.

It further said a declaration by the informant that the facts contained in the e-FIR are true to the best of his or her knowledge, information and belief must be made mandatory.

Seeking to protect privacy, it said the data provided while registering the FIR online is not compromised with and there is no infringement of privacy of the parties involved.

Privacy of the informan or complainant and the person named as 'suspect' on the Centralized National Portal is to be secured till the e-FIR is not signed by the informant or complainant.

"In case the registered information is not signed by the informant deliberately within the prescribed time, the information shall be deleted from the centralised national portal after two weeks," it said.

It asserted that privacy of sexual offence victims must be given prime consideration at all stages.

Referring to the trial stage, the commission said all e-FIRs should be forwarded to the courts concerned by linking the website of police with e-Courts portal.

This can be achieved by using the Inter-operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS), which allows digital signing of e-FIR and automatically sending it to the courts.

The proposal of electronic registration of FIRs, which is being partly implemented for specified crimes in eight states, has taken one step forward under clause 173 in the proposed Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Bill, which will replace the CrPC, the report noted.

As per proposed clause 173 in the new bill, while information can be given electronically for cognisable offences without any bar on jurisdiction, the police officer is required to take it on record after it has been signed within three days of giving the first information.

In states such as Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, e-FIRs can be lodged for offences like mobile phone and vehicle theft, Utar Prdesh and Uttarakhand extend the facility for "for unknown accused cases." The Unio Home Ministry had asked the law panel to examine the issue after the DGPs/IGPs conference in 2018 suggested that there should be an amendment in Section 154 of the CrPC for enabling online registration of FIRs.

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