SUDHIR CHANDRA GHOSH Vs. A D M 24 PARGANAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent. The appeal is directed against the judgment and order dated January 25, 1968, passed by a learned single Judge of the Court in a writ proceeding which was registered as Civil Rule No. 673 (W) of 1964. The point involved in this appeal is one of law and the point is whether a notice to show cause is necessary to be given by the licensing authority prior to revoking a gun licence under Section 17 (3) of the Arms Act, 1959 (hereinafter referred to as the said Act). Such a point was not raised at the trial but has been raised in this appeal as a point of law by Mr. Dutt appearing in support of this appeal. The undisputed facts may be set out very briefly as follows.

(2.) The petitioner (appellant before us) was the holder of a gun licence bearing No. 2372 BH. In May 1962 over a certain incident a criminal case was started against the petitioner by a neighbour Byomkesh Chakrabarti who having seized the petitioner's gun deposited the same with the local police station along with some fired cartridges and some live cartridges. There was a counter case by the petitioner against the said Byomkesh. Eventually both the cases were compounded and the learned Magistrate directed the gun and the cartridges to be returned to the petitioner. The licence having been misplaced the petitioner applied before the licensing authority for issue of a duplicate licence. The licensing authority called for a report from a Deputy Magistrate Shri S. K. Gupta Roy, who was then the Officer-in-Charge of the Arms Department under the licensing authority. Shri Roy submitted a report on February 12, 1964, to the effect that the licensee does not appear to be a suitable person for possessing a fire-arm, and as such, his prayer for issue of a duplicate licence was recommended to be rejected along with a further recommendation that his licence be revoked. He recommended as such as he found that there is truth in the complaint made against the petitioner to the effect that he being armed with the gun formed an unlawful assembly and forcibly entered into the house of the complainant Byomkesh to take away the straw kept in his yard and there fired two rounds causing injury to three persons. On consideration of the report so submitted, the licensing authority revoked the licence by making an endorsement on the report "as proposed". That was the order which was challenged in the aforesaid writ proceeding. Before the learned trial Judge the only point that was raised was to the effect that the licensing authority not having himself recorded the order of revocation with his own reasons a mere endorsement of approval of the recommendation of Shri Roy does not constitute a valid order of revocation under Section 17 of the said Act. The learned trial Judge, however, overruled the point so raised when he observed:

(3.) Mr. Dutt, however, has raised a new point before us in this appeal. He has contended that an order of revocation under Section 17 (3) necessarily takes away the legal right of the licensee to hold the fire arm and, therefore, any order of revocation necessarily presupposes that the licensee must be given a show cause notice with reference to the reasons for which the licence is proposed to be revoked. According to Mr. Dutt, in such a case principles of natural justice require such a notice to be given. Mr. Banerji appearing on behalf of the respondent, on the other hand, has strongly contested the point thus raised by Mr. Dutt and it has been contended by him that an order under Section 17 (3) of the said Act, being an administrative act there is no scope for application of the principles of natural justice and in any event on the scheme of the provisions of the Act any requirement of a prior notice to show cause is ruled out.