A man's plea against refusal of an arm licence to secure his life, property and business activities was today accepted by the Delhi High Court which directed the concerned authority to issue the licence in eight weeks.
Allowing Vinod Kumar's plea, Justice V K Jain set aside the licensing authority's January 18, 2012 order saying "...I have perused the Standing Order. This is not a requirement under these guidelines that the applicant (Kumar) must necessarily have a specific threat to his life or liberty before an arms licence can be granted to him, the primary requirement being that the need for grant of such a licence should be genuine."
"This need, as discussed earlier, needs to be considered from the point of view of the applicant and not of the licensing authority," the bench said rejecting the authority's argument that Kumar had not mentioned any specific threat in his application for arm licence.
The court also said "...The respondents are directed to grant an appropriate licence to the petitioner (Kumar) unless there exists a situation contemplated by Section 14(1) of the Arms Act which would mandate refusal of a licence to him. An appropriate order in terms of this direction be passed by the Licensing Authority, within eight weeks."
Kumar, a resident of Tahirpur here, had applied for the arm licence in January 2011 but the licensing authority-Additional DCP-I (North-East District) had stated that the general law and order situation in his area, including village Tahirpur, was normal and need for the arm licence, therefore, did not appear to be genuine and rejected his plea in March, 2011.
Being aggrieved by the authority's order, Kumar had approached the Lieutenant Governor who had also upheld the DCP licensing's report and the decision refusing to issue him the licence.
