Can the police arrest you without an FIR?

Key points

• The FIR comes first. Section 154 makes the officer in charge of a police station enter information about a cognizable offence in the prescribed book, and registration "cannot be refused nor delayed" (2025 SCMR 2028, para 8).
• An arrest before the FIR is illegal, except in the situations the Code itself lists in sections 54, 55, 57 and 151 (for example, a person reasonably suspected of a cognizable offence). Even then, sections 60 and 61 require the police to take the person to a magistrate or inform the magistrate (2025 SCMR 1717, para 6).
• An entry in the daily diary (roznamcha) is not an FIR, and a magistrate has no power to order an 'inquiry' under section 156(3) in its place (2026 SCMR 955, paras 13 and 15).
• Anyone arrested must be told the grounds as soon as may be, can consult and be defended by a lawyer of his choice, and must be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours, travel time excluded (Constitution, Article 10(1) and (2)). These two clauses do not cover preventive detention laws (Article 10(3)).
• If a person is held with no case, the family can apply under section 491 of the Code to the High Court, or to a Sessions Judge where the High Court has given that power. Courts send a bailiff or a magistrate to the police station and set an illegally detained person free.

Can the police arrest you without an FIR? The short answer

Usually not. The Supreme Court's rule in Said-ur-Rehman v. The State (2026 SCMR 955) is plain: an arrest made before the FIR is illegal and without lawful authority, unless it falls within the exceptions the Code of Criminal Procedure spells out in sections 54, 55, 57 and 151 (para 13).

Those exceptions are real. Section 54 lets a police officer arrest without a warrant, for example, "any person who has been concerned in any cognizable offence or against whom a reasonable complaint has been made or credible information has been received, or a reasonable suspicion exists of his having been so concerned". But even then the police cannot hold the person at will: sections 60 and 61 require them to take him before a magistrate, and Article 10(2) of the Constitution sets the limit at 24 hours.

Chitral, 2016: a diary entry, an 'inquiry' and two arrests

On 17 February 2016 a mother in a remote part of Chitral reported to a police officer on patrol that two young men of her family had been missing since the day before, and named the people she suspected. The Supreme Court records that her information disclosed a cognizable offence, yet no FIR was registered: the particulars were written in the daily diary, and a magistrate's permission was sought for an 'inquiry' under section 156(3) (2026 SCMR 955, paras 4 and 14).

The same day, the officer arrested two of the men she had named (para 5). The FIR came only the next day, after the young men were found dead (para 6). Six days after the arrest, on 23 February 2016, both made judicial confessions (para 19). The trial court sentenced them to death on two counts in January 2020, and the Peshawar High Court upheld the sentences in June 2021 (para 9).

What the Supreme Court decided in May 2025

A bench of Athar Minallah, Irfan Saadat Khan and Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan, JJ allowed the appeal on 22 May 2025 and acquitted both men, giving them the benefit of the doubt (para 1). The judgment, written by Athar Minallah, J, calls the case "a classic illustration of the abysmal state of the criminal justice system" (para 2).

On the arrest, the Court held that a magistrate cannot order an 'inquiry' under section 156(3), that a daily diary entry "does not authorize the police to initiate an investigation", and that the two arrests were "illegal and without lawful authority, not falling within any of the statutory exceptions" (paras 13 and 15). The confessions came six days after that illegal arrest, while the men were in custody, so they were "surrounded by serious doubts"; with the recoveries and the forensic evidence also unreliable, the prosecution failed (paras 19 to 24).

Not one case: two more 2025 rulings say the same

In Sher Ahmed v. The State (2025 SCMR 1717, decided 13 March 2025) a child went missing in Swat in 2012. For more than two months the police ran an 'inquiry' instead of a case, and "numerous persons were arrested and interrogated as suspects". The Supreme Court held that the officers "had illegally arrested suspects and then released them. The interrogation without the registration of a case in the circumstances was also illegal" (para 7). It noted that the 'madd' and inquiry habit "is widespread in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa" and sent the judgment to the province's Inspector General of Police (para 11).

In Seeta Ram v. The State (2025 SCMR 2028, decided 21 May 2025, a case from Sindh) the Court added that it is "not the concern of the officer in charge of a police station whether the information is true or false": he cannot play judge and run an inquiry before the FIR (para 7), and registration "cannot be refused nor delayed" (para 8). The Inspector General of Police, Sindh told the Court the problem was widespread; the Court called the reasons given, such as attempts at reconciliation before an FIR, "alien to the mandate of the Cr.P.C." (para 17).

Your rights once arrested: Article 10

Article 10(1): "No person who is arrested shall be detained in custody without being informed, as soon as may be, of the grounds for such arrest, nor shall he be denied the right to consult and be defended by a legal practitioner of his choice."

Article 10(2): every arrested person "shall be produced before a magistrate within a period of twenty-four hours of such arrest, excluding the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the court of the nearest magistrate", and cannot be kept longer without a magistrate's authority. Section 61 of the Code says the same for arrests without a warrant. Article 10(3) excludes preventive detention laws, which have their own rules.

If someone you love is picked up: what to do

Right away: ask which FIR he is being held in, and note the time and place of the arrest, because the 24 hours run from the arrest. Call a lawyer; consulting one is his constitutional right.

If he is held with no case, or kept past 24 hours without a magistrate's order, the family can file a petition under section 491 of the Code. The High Court can direct that "a person illegally or improperly detained in public or private custody ... be set at liberty", and under section 491(1A) the High Court can give that power to Sessions Judges and Additional Sessions Judges. In practice the court sends a bailiff or a magistrate to raid the police station: in November 2024 a magistrate's surprise raid on a police station in Sindh found two men held with no entry in any register, and the officers were made to pay costs (2026 PCrLJ 572).

For law students and lawyers

The line runs through section 154 (information in cognizable cases), section 156 (investigation of a registered cognizable case), section 157 (reason to suspect, and reasons sent to the magistrate) and section 156(3) (a magistrate may order an investigation, not an 'inquiry'). An 'inquiry' under section 4(k) is something a magistrate or court conducts, not the police (2026 SCMR 955, para 13; 2025 SCMR 2028, para 7).

The consequence the Court draws is about evidence: an arrest outside the Code, followed by days in police custody, weighs heavily against the voluntariness of a later confession under section 164 (2026 SCMR 955, paras 15 to 19; 2025 SCMR 1717, paras 5 to 10). Cite it with care: in both cases the acquittal rested on the whole record, not on the illegal arrest alone.

The case at a glance

Facts

A mother in Chitral reported on 17 February 2016 that two young men of her family were missing and named suspects. The police wrote it in the daily diary instead of registering an FIR, obtained a magistrate's permission for an 'inquiry', and arrested two named men the same day. The FIR followed the next day; both men confessed six days after the arrest, were sentenced to death in 2020, and lost their High Court appeal in 2021.

The question

Could the police arrest the men on a daily diary entry and an 'inquiry' before any FIR, and could the confessions that followed support a conviction?

What the Court held

No. A magistrate cannot order an 'inquiry' under section 156(3); an arrest before the FIR, outside sections 54, 55, 57 and 151, is illegal and without lawful authority. The confessions were surrounded by serious doubts, the other evidence was unreliable, and both men were acquitted on 22 May 2025.

Why

Section 154 comes first: information about a cognizable offence must be entered in the prescribed register, which brings the case under a magistrate's supervision. A diary entry lets the police avoid that check. Days of custody after an illegal arrest make a later confession suspect, because the distress and trauma of custody may impair rational judgment (paras 13 to 19).

Limits

It does not make every arrest without an FIR illegal: the Code's own exceptions remain. It does not say an illegal arrest alone ends a case; the acquittal rested on the whole record. It does not deal with preventive detention, which Article 10(3) leaves to its own laws.

In the Court’s words

“The appellants were arrested on 17.02.2016 i.e. prior to the registration of a crime report under section 154 of Cr.P.C., their arrest was, therefore, illegal and without lawful authority, not falling within any of the statutory exceptions.”

2026 SCMR 955, para 15

“The judicial confessions were recorded on 23.02.2016 i.e. six days after their illegal arrest.”

2026 SCMR 955, para 19

“The officer in charge of the police station or any other officer associated with the purported 'inquiry' had illegally arrested suspects and then released them.”

2025 SCMR 1717, para 7

The law it relies on

What this does not mean

• It does not mean every arrest without an FIR is illegal. Sections 54, 55, 57 and 151 of the Code still allow some arrests before a case is registered, for example on a reasonable suspicion of a cognizable offence; what they never allow is holding someone without taking him to a magistrate.
• It does not mean an illegal arrest automatically ends the case or frees the accused. In Said-ur-Rehman the acquittal also rested on doubtful confessions, late forensic tests and contradictions in the evidence (paras 19 to 24).
• It does not mean anyone should resist or run from an arrest. Ask for the FIR, call a lawyer, and use the courts: a petition under section 491 or a bail application.
• It does not cover preventive detention. Article 10(3) leaves it to its own laws, with review boards and time limits of their own.

Questions people ask

Sources

• Said-ur-Rehman and another v. The State and another, 2026 SCMR 955 (Supreme Court of Pakistan, 22 May 2025), paras 1, 2, 4 to 6, 9, 13 to 15, 18, 19, 23, 24
  An arrest before the FIR, outside sections 54, 55, 57 and 151, is illegal; a magistrate cannot order an 'inquiry' under section 156(3); confessions after the illegal arrest doubted; both appellants acquitted. verified against full text
• Sher Ahmed and another v. The State and another, 2025 SCMR 1717 (Supreme Court of Pakistan, 13 March 2025), paras 2, 6, 7, 11
  Suspects arrested and released during an 'inquiry' before any FIR: illegal arrests and illegal interrogation; the habit widespread in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. verified against full text
• Seeta Ram v. The State, 2025 SCMR 2028 (Supreme Court of Pakistan, 21 May 2025), paras 7, 8, 17
  The FIR cannot be refused or delayed; the SHO is not a judge of whether information is true; a daily diary entry avoids the magistrate's check; delays widespread in Sindh. verified against full text
• Ali Asghar v. The State, 2026 PCrLJ 572 (Sindh High Court, 10 February 2025)
  A section 491 application before an Additional Sessions Judge; a magistrate's surprise raid found two men held at a police station with no entry under section 154 or in the station diary; costs on the officers upheld. headnote and order read in the FAI archive
• Jamila Bibi v. Station House Officer, 2024 PCrLJ 1014 (Lahore High Court, 5 January 2024)
  On a section 491 petition the Court's bailiff inspected a Lahore police station; the station diary is the key record against illegal arrest and detention. headnote read in the FAI archive
• Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973, Article 10 text checked in FAI Statute Search, 26 October 2026
• Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, Sections 54, 61, 154 and 491 text checked in FAI Statute Search, 26 October 2026 Pakistan Code

Every quote and section above is traced to the full judgment or statute text by an automatic check that runs on every update.

What the reel says