Cognizable Offence
Definition
An offence for which a police officer may arrest without a warrant and start investigating without a magistrate's prior order, listed as such in the First Schedule to the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023.
Related terms
- Bailable Offence
- An offence for which the accused has a legal right to be released on bail once the required bond is furnished; the...
- Compounding of Offences
- A statutory process by which a complainant agrees to withdraw a criminal complaint, ending the prosecution, available only for offences the legislature...
- Non-Bailable Offence
- An offence for which release before trial is not a right; a court weighs the gravity of the charge, flight risk and...
- Non-Cognizable Offence
- An offence for which a police officer may not arrest without a warrant, and cannot investigate without a magistrate's order or a...
- Arrest Memo
- A written record of an arrest, naming the time and place, attested by a witness and given to the arrested person, required...
- Charge Sheet
- The final report an investigating officer files with a magistrate at the close of investigation, summarising evidence and naming the accused to...
- Felony
- A common law category for a serious offence, historically carrying severe punishment, used as a rough comparison point for a cognizable, non-bailable...
- Felony and Misdemeanour
- A two-tier classification, still used across most of the United States, that typically separates offences by whether the maximum sentence exceeds one...
- First Information Report (FIR)
- The written record an officer in charge of a police station prepares on receiving information about a cognizable offence, which sets the...
- Misdemeanour
- A common law category for a less serious offence, used as a rough comparison point for a non-cognizable, bailable offence.
- Police Custody
- Detention of an arrested person under direct police control for questioning, tightly time limited and subject to a magistrate's authorisation beyond the...
- Summary Offence
- A minor offence tried quickly without a full trial procedure, often overlapping in practice with offences that are also bailable and compoundable.
Explained in these topics
- Classifying Offences: Cognizable, Bailable and Compoundable
- Cognizable, Bailable and Compoundable Offences (UGC-NET Unit V)An offence for which police can register an FIR, investigate and arrest without a warrant, without waiting for a magistrate's order.
- Criminal Investigation: From Complaint to Charge SheetAn offence for which the police may register a case and arrest without prior judicial permission, generally the more serious category of crime.