Allahabad High Court directs Chief Secratary to take remedial measures against district magistrates who keep applications for arms licenses pending for long
By Rajesh Pandey
Taking serious note of the nondisposal of the applications for arms license within the prescribed time, the Allahabad High Court has directed the Chief Secretary to take remedial measures against those district magistrates who keep such applications pending without any reason.
Disposing of a writ petition filed by one Shivom, Justice Vikram D Chauhan further directed that the district magistrates (DMs) of the UP state, who are the licensing authority under the Arms Act will prepare the data about the pending firearm applications under the Arms Act within 45 days and the aforesaid data shall be submitted before the Chief Secretary, UP or any officer nominated by him.
“If any application under the Arms Act is found pending beyond the time granted under the Arms Rules and the Arms Act, the DMs would be bound to decide the same”, the court directed.
“It is made clear that the citizens cannot be forced to come to this court for only seeking direction that the particular officer may exercise its power. The officer must exercise the statutory direction which has been conferred on the aforesaid officer”, the court observed.
The court further directed that if the district magistrates do not follow the same then the aforesaid district magistrates shall be considered for remedial measures by the chief secretary and officer nominated by him. If the DMs find that any officer of the state is creating hindrance by not submitting the report in time, the DMs shall ensure action against the aforesaid officer concerned, and all the departments of the state including the police department shall act in the aid of the DMs for decision on the firearm license applications, the court added.
The court passed this order when it took up a petition filed by one Shivom, who stated that he had moved an application for the arms licence on June 2, 2022 before the district magistrate, Mainpuri but no decision has been taken by him till date.
Taking a serious note of it, the court in its decision dated March 11 observed, that a large number of petitions are being filed before this court seeking direction to the district magistrates to consider the firearm license pending, and some cases are found to be pending for more than three years which only reflects that the licensing authorities are not following the mandate of law. The state government has already issued direction on March 10, 2025, and the strict compliance of the same is required.
