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Judgment
The present writ petition has been filed in public interest raising the grievance that accused persons connected with or subsequently implicated in the criminal cases and members of the general public are not able to download the FIRs from the CCTNS Portal. The petitioner places reliance upon the directions issued by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in “Youth Bar Association of India vs. Union of India & Another”, (2016) 9 SCC 473, in para 12(d) whereof, the Hon’ble Supreme Court has issued the following directions:-
terrorism and of that category, offences under POCSO Act and such other offences, should be uploaded on the police website, and if there is no such website, on the official website of the State Government, within twenty-four hours of the registration of the First Information Report so that the accused or any person connected with the same can download the FIR and file appropriate application before the Court as per law for redressal of his grievances. It may be clarified here that in case there is connectivity problems due to geographical location or there is some other unavoidable difficulty, the time can be extended up to forty-eight hours. The said 48 hours can be extended maximum up to 72 hours and it is only relatable to connectivity problems due to geographical location…”
Ms. Prabha Naithani, learned counsel for the petitioner had submitted before the Court on the last date that she herself tried to access the Portal but failed to download the FIRs and the system was continuously showing an error.
Having regard to the aforesaid contention and also taking into consideration the stand of the State, placed on record through instructions of Inspector General of Police (Crime, Law & Order), Uttarakhand, we passed the following order on 18.09.2026:-
“1.Ms. Prabha Naithani and Mr. Gaurav Pawar, learned counsel for the petitioner.
2.Mr. Amarendra Pratap Singh, learned Addl. Advocate General and Mr. B.S. Parihar, learned Addl. C.S.C. for the State of Uttarakhand.
3.Learned counsel for the State has placed on record the instructions received from the Inspector General of Police (Crime, Law & Order), Uttarakhand. According to it, the First
In compliance of the said order, Ms. Nivedita Kukreti, I.G. Kumaun has appeared through Video Conferencing. Ms. Shahjehan Jawed Khan, S.P., CCTNS/SCRB, PHQ, Inspector Rachna Srivastav, Incharge CCTNS/SCRB along with their technical team are also present in the Court. The technical team has shown to the Court how the Citizen Portal and the Mobile App works. Initially, a person who seeks to download any FIR has to register himself on the Citizen Portal and once he is registered he can have access to the FIRs through the Citizen Portal as well as the Mobile App. The technical team has also demonstrated before us that the system is working by downloading few FIRs.
The S.P. CCTNS has supplied the details of persons who have downloaded FIRs on 22.09.2026, which is a list of 70 hits by different persons on the website.
The S.P. CCTNS also informs the Court that all First Information Reports are available on the Citizen Portal or Mobile App except in relation to offences which are sensitive in nature, like sexual offences, offences pertaining to insurgency, terrorism and other offences of that category, and offences under POCSO Act and other related offences.
The FIRs in relation to the aforesaid offences admittedly are not required to be uploaded as provided by the Supreme Court itself. However, in our opinion, in respect of such FIRs, the respondents should enable a feature on the system which should indicate the details of FIRs, which fall under the said category of offences and consequently have not been made available on the website. It will enable the person seeking to download any such FIR to know the reason why the same is not available for downloading.
S.P. CCTNS has assured the Court that the respondents shall examine the said aspect and enable such a feature on the system.
As the concern expressed by the petitioner has been duly addressed and no other issue survives for consideration, therefore, the proceedings of the present PIL are closed.
(MANOJ KUMAR GUPTA, C. J.)