What exactly is Zero FIR? — Balanced Report

Recent incidences of violence and criminality in Manipur have brought the ‘Zero First Information Report (FIR)’ concept to the forefront.
The Supreme Court has requested all evidence pertaining to such FIRs in the Manipur Gangrape Incidence.

Provision and Purpose: Zero FIR permits any police station to file a FIR for a cognisable offence without first assigning a conventional FIR number.
No diary: Whereas FIRs are assigned serial numbers, zero FIRs are assigned the number ‘0’. As a result, the name.
Rapid Action: The relevant police station then records a new FIR and begins the investigation.
Focus on Victims: It is intended to speed up the filing of complaints, particularly for major offences affecting women and children, without the need to visit multiple police stations.
Early registration helps prevent the loss or tampering with critical evidence and witnesses.
Transferred Jurisdiction: The Zero FIR is later transferred to the police station where the offence happened or where the investigation should take place.

After registering a zero FIR, a police station must transfer the complaint to a police station with jurisdiction to investigate the alleged offence.
After transferring a zero FIR, the police station with the relevant jurisdiction provides it a serial number, transforming it into a normal FIR.

Various judgements and guidelines support the provision of Zero FIR.
Satvinder Kaur vs. State (1999): The Delhi High Court ruled that a woman has the right to file a complaint from any location other than the location of the occurrence.
The Verma Committee of Justice (2012): The Justice Verma Committee, constituted in response to the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape case, recommended the implementation of Zero FIR.
Lalita Kumari v. State of Uttar Pradesh (2014): The Supreme Court declared that filing a FIR is required when information reveals the commission of a cognizable criminal.

Source: https://www.livelaw.in/h-upload/2019/12/04/1600x960_367543-zero-fir-new.jpg