The Supreme Court has made it clear—there’s no shortcut when multiple states and separate transactions are involved. On Friday, the Court ruled that nationwide consolidation of First Information Reports (FIRs) is impermissible when the cases are rooted in different events, witnesses, and local laws.
A bench led by Chief Justice BR Gavai with Justice K Vinod Chandran underscored that clubbing is only allowed when FIRs emerge from the same incident or transaction. The ruling came in a multi-crore financial scam case where the accused had sought to merge FIRs filed against them in different states.
The Court shot down the attempt, noting the reliance on the Amish Devgan ruling was misplaced. That earlier case allowed merging because the FIRs all stemmed from a single televised statement—one act, one controversy. Here, the judges stressed, the accusations were distinct: investors across states alleging they were duped, each requiring separate evidence and witnesses. “To proceed with one trial across states would not be practical,” Justice Chandran observed.
Still, the Court struck a middle path. While it refused nationwide consolidation, it directed that FIRs within the same state should be merged. In Telangana, four cases were consolidated under the Economic Offences Wing, Cyberabad. In Maharashtra, a case in Thane was transferred to Nagpur. But similar requests in Karnataka, West Bengal, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, and Rajasthan were denied.
The judgment closed with a clear message: state-wise consolidation is manageable, but collapsing the entire web of cases into one would unravel the very fabric of due process.