AMARESHWAR SAHAY, J. - (1.) BY Court Heard the parties.
(2.) THE prayer of the Petitioner in this Writ Application is to quash the Order dated 13th June, 2000, contained in Annexure -6, passed by the Deputy Commissioner, Ranchi, whereby an Order for forfeiture of DBBL Gun belonging to the grandfather of the Petitioner has been passed in terms of Section 21(3) of the Arms Act, 1959 . Further prayer of the Petitioner is to grant license to the Petitioner to keep the said DBBL Gun. The case of the Petitioner is that his grandfather, namely. Late Jhulan Singh had a license for keeping the firearms and he owned a DBBL Gun under valid fire arms license. The said Jhulan Singh, grandfather of the Petitioner died on 2nd May, 1994, living behind his two sons, namely, Ramesh Vijay Bahadur Singh and Umesh Vijay Bahadur Singh, i.e. the father of the Petitioner. The father of the Petitioner predeceased his father in 1980 itself. The other son namely Ramesh Vijay Bahadur singh, who is a handicap, applied for permission for depositing the said DBBL Gun with M/s Ranchi Gun house, which was granted on 18th May, 1994. Pursuant to the said permission, the gun was deposited with M/s Ranchi Gun House by Ramesh Vijay Bahadur Singh. Further case of the Petitioner is that the only surviving son of the original licensee, i.e. Jhulan Singh is now Ramesh Vijay Bahadur Singh and since he is a handicap and, as such this Petitioner being the grand son of Late Jhulan Singh applied for grant of license in 1996 for retaining the said DBBL gun in question. It is alleged that at one hand no Order on his application for granting of license was passed by the Deputy Commissioner, Ranchi but, on the other hand the Petitioner was served with a notice issued from the office of the District Arms Magistrate, wherein he was asked to show cause as to why the arms in question be forfeited by the Government, as envisaged under Section 21(3) of the Arms Act. The Petitioner submitted his show cause. The grievance of the Petitioner is that without considering his show cause, the impugned Order as contained in Annexure -6 dated 13th June, 2000 forfeiting the fire arms, i.e. DBBL Gun belonging to the grandfather of the Petitioner has been passed.
(3.) MR . P.A.S. Pati, learned Counsel appearing for the Petitioner submitted that before passing the impugned Order forfeiting the fire arm the Deputy Commissioner ought to have considered the application of the Petitioner for grant of license and only if his application for grant of license would have been rejected then only such an Order as contained in Annexure -6 dated 13th June, 2000 could have been passed. In support of his submission he has relied on a decision of the learned Single Judge of this Court in the case of "A. Hashim V/s. State of Bihar, reported in 2001 (1) J.L.J. R., 279".;