ANJANI KUMAR, J. - (1.) By means of the present writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, petitioner has challenged the orders dated 31.5.1999 passed by the District Magistrate, Rampur and 7.9.1999 by the Commissioner, Moradabad Division. Moradabad Annexures -1 and 3 to the writ petition, respectively, under the provisions of Section 17 of the Arms Act, cancelling the licence of his firearm.
(2.) HEARD learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned standing counsel representing the respondents. Learned counsel for the petitioner contends that the petitioner has been served with a show cause notice under Section 17 of the Arms Act asking him to show cause as to why his fire -arm licence may not be cancelled and in reply thereto, he filed his objection stating therein that he was never involved in criminal case and he has not misused his gun as is alleged in the showcause notice. The further contention of the petitioner's counsel is that two cases under Crime Nos. 174 of 1993 and 178 of 1998 at police station Bilaspur and Milak Khanam, respectively, district Rampur have been registered against six persons of the locality, including the petitioner and in which he has been falsely named by the police due to enmity. It is on the basis of the aforesaid F.I.R., the petitioner has been served with the aforesaid show cause notice. A perusal of the order of revocation of the licence demonstrates that the petitioner is a person connected with the crime, referred to above and, therefore, he is not the person with whom the fire -arm should be retained in public interest. The appellate authority has also taken the same view, thus this writ petition. - - The question as to whether mere involvement in a criminal case or pendency of a criminal case can be a ground for revocation of the licence under Arms Act. has been dealt with by a Division Bench of this Court in Sheo Prasad Misra v. District Magistrate, Basti and others, 1978 AWC 122, wherein the Division Bench relying upon the earlier decision in Masi Uddin v. Commissioner, Allahabad, 1972 ALJ 573, found that mere Involvement in criminal case cannot in any way affect the public security or public Interest and the order cancelling or revoking the licence of fire -arm was set aside. The present Impugned orders also suffer from the same infirmity as was pointed out by the Division Bench in the above -mentioned cases. I am in full agreement with the view taken by the Division Bench that these orders cannot be sustained and deserve to be quashed and are hereby quashed.
(3.) THERE is yet another reason that during the pendency of the present writ petition, the petitioner has been acquitted from the aforesaid criminal cases and at present, there is neither any case pending, nor any conviction has been attributed to the petitioner, as is evident from Annexures -SA -I and SA -II to the supplementary -affidavit filed by the petitioner. In this view of the matter, the petitioner is in law entitled to have the fire -arm licence. It is submitted by petitioner's counsel that the petitioner has been acquitted of the charges.;