Court dismisses man's plea for restoration of Arms licence

A man's plea for restoring his Arms licence cancelled by the licencing unit of Delhi Police, allegedly in an arbitrary manner, has been dismissed by a local court.
Judge Small Causes Court (JSCC) Sonu Agnihotri dismissed the plea of the south Delhi resident saying the Arms Act specifically provides that any person aggrieved by the order of the licencing authority can move an appellate authority as prescribed in the Act itself.
Noting that the appellate authority in the case was the state government, the court said he should have first approached the authority concerned to get the cancellation order declared null and void.

"Right of appeal being provided to plaintiff under Arms Act, 1959 and plaintiff omitting to avail the same indicates that he has approached this Court without exhausting his remedy provided in Arms Act," the court said.
The court said the plaintiff had "failed to avail remedy of appeal as provided under the Arms Act and thereby allowed order of (cancellation) of Licensing Authority to become final and rather approached this court with an inchoate cause of action."
The man had moved court claiming his right to self defence and saying he was the holder of licence for non-prohibited bore revolver valid for August 1, 2012 for Delhi and the same was cancelled by the licencing authority arbitrarily even as he faced threat to his life.

He had prayed before the court for directing the state government and the Additional Commissioner of Police to restore his arms licence and not to give the same to anyone else.