A complaint to a Magistrate under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023

A criminal matter can reach a court in two ways: on a first information report the police record, and on a complaint presented directly to a Magistrate. This describes the second. A first information report is not a document drawn up by the person reporting — under section 173 the information is given to the police and reduced to writing by them — so it is not described here. Section 2(1)(h) defines a complaint as an allegation, made orally or in writing to a Magistrate, with a view to the Magistrate taking cognizance of an offence, and section 210(1)(a) is the provision under which cognizance is taken on one. The Sanhita says little about the form of the complaint itself; the points below are what these two provisions require of it, and the rest is the practice of the court it goes to.

What such a document contains

It is addressed to a Magistrate
What makes an allegation a complaint, rather than information given to the police, is that it is made to a Magistrate. Section 2(1)(h) defines a complaint in exactly those terms, and it is the Magistrate who acts on itSection 2(1)(h), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023
It is an allegation of facts
A complaint is an allegation of facts, made with a view to the Magistrate taking cognizance of an offence. Section 2(1)(h) frames it as an allegation and it is the facts alleged that the Magistrate weighsSection 2(1)(h), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023
It may be made orally or in writing
Section 2(1)(h) admits both. A complaint does not have to be a written document to be a complaint, though a matter of any complexity is set out in writing so that the allegation is fixed and can be examinedSection 2(1)(h), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023
The facts alleged constitute an offence
Under section 210(1)(a) a Magistrate takes cognizance upon a complaint of facts which constitutes an offence, so an allegation that discloses no offence is not one a Magistrate can proceed onSection 210(1)(a), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023
It identifies who is complained against, and the sequence of facts
A written complaint conventionally names the person complained against and sets out the facts in the order they happened, with the dates. Nothing read for this section requires this, but an allegation that does not say who did what, and when, leaves a Magistrate with nothing to examineConvention rather than law
It lists the witnesses to be produced
Such complaints conventionally list the witnesses the complainant intends to produce, because the Magistrate examines the complainant and the witnesses who are present before deciding whether to proceed. The list itself is practice; no provision read for this section requires itConvention rather than law

What this guide is not

Of the points listed below, four are fixed by the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 itself and two are convention — such documents carry them, and no provision read for this section requires them. This is a description of a kind of document and not a document — confirm the contents of any document in a particular matter with an advocate.

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