Abhimanyu Singh vs State of Bihar and Others

Navaniti Pd. Singh, J.—Heard. The petitioner had applied for an arms licence. The same was not being proceeded with and as such he came to this Court. This Court directed the District Magistrate, Vaishali to immediately process the same. Pursuant to directions of this Court, the District Magistrate, Vaishali has rejected the application of the petitioner for the grounds as mentioned in his order as communicated to the petitioner under Memo No. 985 dated 28.8.2003 (Annexure-1). A reference to the said order would show that the papers and documents that were required by the District Magistrate to be furnished are not part of statutory requirement. Section 14 of the Arms Act clearly provides as to on what grounds, application for arms licence can be rejected. Further, a reference to the Act would show that it is not necessary for any person to have substantial property to be eligible for grant of arms licence. A person has to evaluate his own threat perceptions and make arrangement for his own safety and security. In substance, all that has to be seen by the licensing authority is whether the person is suitable person to be granted arms or putting it negatively he should not be undesirable person to hold arms. Those considerations have not been kept in mind and extraneous considerations have appeared. Further, merely because Superintendent of Police has not given any recommendation but merely forwarded the application is no ground for rejecting the petitioner''s application. Petitioner has nothing to do with the same. There is no adverse report from the police. Even otherwise in terms of Section 13(2A) of the Arms Act if the Police Officer does not submit the report in time, the licensing authority is free to proceed with the matter and is not to wait ad infinitum or reject on that ground the application of the petitioner for petitioner is not at fault.

In that view of the matter, I have no alternative but to quash Annexure-1 as indicated above and to remand the matter to the licensing authority to take a decision afresh in view of the directions and observations as made above. The same shall be done within a period of three months from the date of production of a copy of this order. The writ application, with the aforesaid direction, is thus allowed.