K.J. Mathew vs State Of Kerala And Ors

Petitioner is aggrieved by the delay in passing orders on his application for renewal of licence for possession of fire arms. It is stated that the second respondent had already remanded the matter after considering the appeal submitted by the petitioner as against the rejection of the application for renewal of licence by the 3rd respondent. Even though Ext.P3 order remitting the matter to the 3rd respondent was issued as early as on 14.06.2017, so far no orders are passed. Even though the matter was considered in the Adalath, as per Ext.P4 letter dated 02.11.2020 the 3rd respondent has informed the petitioner that final orders could not be passed since petitioner did not produce further evidence relating to the incidents affecting threat to the life and property of the petitioner.

The contention of the petitioner is that for issuing orders on application for renewal of licence it is not necessary that petitioner should produce evidence relating to the threat to his life and property as he was already having the licence since the year 1985 and it was being renewed. Relying on the judgment of this Court in Chandran Nair v. Additional District Magistrate, Kasargode [2015 (1) KHC 351], learned counsel for the petitioner points out that there is no justifiable reason for denying renewal of licence to the petitioner.

It is seen that Ext.P3 order was passed by the second respondent as early as in June 2017 and so far 3rd respondent has not passed any orders on the renewal application despite the fact that the petitioner was granted licence in the year 1985 and it was being renewed since then and an application for renewal was submitted as early as in January 2012. Therefore there shall be a direction to the 3rd respondent to pass orders within a period of 'two months' from the date of receipt of a copy of the judgment, after affording an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner, taking note of the judgments of this Court in Chandran Nair v. Additional District Magistrate, Kasargode [2015 (1) KHC 351], C.P.Raman Nair v. Additional District Magistrate, Kasargode and others [AIR 1968 Kerala 65] etc.

The writ petition is disposed of accordingly.