- (1.) ANJANI Kumar, J. Heard learned Counsel for the petitioner and the learned Standing Counsel for the respondents.
(2.) THE petitioner aggrieved by the order of cancellation of the fire-arm licence by the licensing authority granted to him under the provisions of the Arms Act approached the appellate authority with an appeal and his appeal has been dismissed by the appellate authority. A perusal of the order of the licensing authority demonstrates that the licence of the fire-arm of the petitioner has been cancelled on the ground that the petitioner has been involved in two criminal cases. In both these criminal cases, the petitioner has been acquitted as would be clear from the copies of the judgments filed as Annexures-S. A. I and S. A. II to the supplementary affidavit. The third case that has been relied upon by the licensing authority for cancellation of the licence of the fire-arm of the petitioner is a case under the Bandhuva Mazdoor Adhiniyam. Learned Counsel for the petitioner has relied upon the decisions of this Court reported in 1985 A. W. C. 40 and 1996 (Supplement) A. W. C. 46. The decision taken by me in the case of Iftikhar Khan v. State of U. P. and others, 2002 (1) Judicial Interpretation on Crimes at page 502, wherein relying upon the decision of this Court, I have held that mere involvement in a criminal case or pendency of criminal case cannot be a ground for cancellation of arms licence under the Arms Act.
(3.) IN my opinion the licensing authority as well as the appellate authority committed error in cancelling the licence of the fire- arm of the petitioner. The petitioner is further entitled for the relief in view of the fact that subsequent to cancellation of the licence, he has been acquitted from the criminal cases and the case in which he is said to be involved is a case of Bandhuva Mazdoor in which also there is an interim order passed by this Court. In this view of the matter, in my opinion, the submission of the learned Counsel for the petitioner deserves to be accepted and is hereby accepted.;