Four Police Stations, One Complaint. The Court Sent Them All To The First.
Separate FIRs in four different police stations over the same transaction would have meant four investigations and four trials. The High Court clubbed them into the first.
The Court held the later FIRs untenable as independent proceedings and directed that the three subsequent cases be immediately transferred to the police station holding the first FIR, so that investigation in that case can proceed without delay. Statements recorded in the later cases are to be treated as statements under Section 162 CrPC in the first.
- The first FIR holds the field. Later FIRs on the same transaction do not sustain independent investigations.
- Four trials would have been the alternative, and the Court described the hardship as immense.
- The earlier material is not wasted. Statements from the later cases carry into the first as Section 162 statements.
- Transfer, not quashing. The cases move rather than die, so nothing in the complaint is lost.
- Court
- Gauhati High Court
- Bench
- Justice HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE ANJAN MONI KALITA
- Citation
- W.P.(Crl.) No. 43 of 2022
- Case
- W.P.(Crl.) No. 43 of 2022
- Decided
- August 2026
- Outcome
- Writ petition disposed of; later FIRs transferred and clubbed
What happened
The petitioner faced FIRs registered at four different police stations arising out of the same transaction — a case at Rangia police station first, followed by cases at Dispur, Tihu and Dhula.
His case was that the later registrations were untenable in law, and that independent investigations and trials in each would cause him immense hardship. He asked for the later FIRs to be transferred to Rangia and clubbed with the first.
What the Court directed
The Court accepted that the subsequent proceedings could not stand as independent matters alongside the first FIR.
It directed that the three later cases be immediately transferred to Rangia police station so that the investigation in the first FIR can proceed without any delay.
The material already gathered is preserved rather than discarded: statements recorded in the transferred cases are to be treated as statements under Section 162 of the Code in the first case.
Who argued it
Appearances as recorded in the judgment of the Court.
Frequently asked
Can the police register several FIRs for the same incident?
Later FIRs on the same transaction do not sustain independent investigations. Here three were transferred into the first.
What happens to statements already recorded?
They are treated as Section 162 statements in the first case, so the material is preserved.
Facing several FIRs on one set of facts
- Establish that the FIRs arise from the same transaction, on their own contents rather than by assertion.
- Identify the first FIR by date and time; it is the one the others are gathered into.
- Ask for transfer and clubbing rather than quashing — a court is far readier to consolidate than to extinguish.
- Address what happens to statements already recorded; here they carry over under Section 162.
Source. Gauhati High Court, W.P.(Crl.) No. 43 of 2022, decided August 2026 by Justice HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE ANJAN MONI KALITA. This explainer is written from the judgment text as reported.
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