MHA gets notice on plea against directions to deposit weapon

New Delhi, October 25

The Delhi HC has issued a notice to the Union Home Ministry and others on a petition challenging the Delhi Police Licensing Branch’s direction requiring an individual arms owner to compulsorily deposit or sell one of the three weapons endorsed on his/her arms licence.

Acting on a petition filed by Meet Malhotra, Justice Rekha Palli also directed that no coercive steps be taken against him for non-compliance with the direction to compulsorily deposit or sell one of his three weapons endorsed on his arms licence.

Asking the MHA and Delhi Police to file their responses in six weeks, it posted the matter for hearing on January 21.

Malhotra contended that since he was already holding three firearms, including a .22 rifle legally, and was a member of the National and State Rifle Associations, the December 2019 amendment to the Arms Act, 1959 — reducing the number of weapons a licence holder could possess from three to two — did not apply to him.

The amendment could not have been made operational retrospectively, he said, adding, in any case clearly it didn’t apply to members of recognised rifle associations holding a .22 rifle as one of three arms already endorsed on their license. The petitioner submitted that for the public, the number of weapons in possession of licensee may or may not be reducible from three to two, but the reduction did not apply to the category of licensees who were members of a rifle association. — TNS

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