Karnataka High Court quashes FIR against drone development company, cautions police against not giving FIRs to accused

Karnataka High Court quashes FIR against drone company, emphasizes police must provide FIR copies to accused promptly.

The Karnataka High Court has cautioned that police officers who fail to give a copy of the First Information Report (FIR) to accused and other persons concerned in a criminal case would be amenable for departmental inquiry for dereliction of duty.

“The law declared by the apex court unequivocally mandates that an accused is entitled to obtain a copy of the FIR without undue delay. Mere assertion that the FIR is uploaded online cannot be a substitute for compliance with the obligation. The denial of essential particulars concerning the FIR renders the rights to access illusory and undermines the very purpose of transparency envisaged by the court,” the court observed.

Any deviation from the norm of furnishing a copy of the FIR by the police stations “would be viewed seriously” and the station house officers or the officers in-charge of the police station who do not follow this “will become open to initiation of departmental inquiry”, the Court clarified.

Justice M. Nagaprasanna made these observations while quashing a FIR, registered suo motu in January by the Doddaballapur police against Bengaluru-based NewSpace Research and Technologies Private Limited, a private firm engaged in research, development, and testing of drone and unmanned aerial vehicles. It supplies drones to the Indian armed forces and its testing centre is located on a leased land spread over 48 acres in Doddaballapur.

The court has also pulled up the police for failing to furnish a copy of the FIR to the petitioner-company despite repeated requests.

The case was registered under Section 125 (an act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 329(3) (criminal trespass) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) after the police control room received information that a drone was found lying on the neighbouring vacant land. The company claimed that a lightweight drone suffered a battery malfunction during a routine test and glided beyond the boundary of its premises and landed smoothly in a neighbouring property.