No Reasons, No FIR Direction: Supreme Court Sets Aside Gauhati High Court Order Under Section 173(4) BNSS

Respondent No. 2 applied under Section 173(4) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 for a direction to register an FIR against the appellant, and the Trial Court dismissed the application (para 3). The Gauhati High Court reversed that order on 17.03.2026 in CRLP No. 761/2025 and directed that an FIR be registered (para 3). The question was whether the High Court was right to do so on the sole premise that, because an FIR registered at the appellant's instance had led to multiple chargesheets, the later complaint by respondent No. 2 against the appellant also had to be registered and proceeded with (para 4). A connected appeal arising out of SLP (Crl.) No. 8392/2026 was heard with it.

The Court found that the High Court had neither found fault with the reasoning given by the Trial Court nor given any cogent reasoning of its own for allowing the criminal petition (para 5). Notwithstanding the arguments made on the merits, the High Court's order could not be sustained on that score alone, and the Court set it aside without going into the submissions of the parties (para 5). On a further issue raised for the respondents, about the first complaint and the relationship of the person on whose behalf it was given to the accused in the complaint lodged by the appellant(s), the Court declined to say anything beyond giving the respondents liberty to take recourse to law (para 6). With these observations, both appeals were allowed (para 7).