The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Order to consider afresh MLA’s plea for arms licence set aside

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Thursday, Aug 14, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Order to consider afresh MLA’s plea for arms licence set aside

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: A Division Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday set aside a single Judge’s order directing the Chennai Police Commissioner to consider T. Nagar MLA V.P. Kalairajan’s request for an arms licence afresh in the light of the court’s observation and pass orders.

Allowing an appeal filed by the Police Commissioner, the First Bench, comprising Chief Justice A.K.Ganguly and Justice F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla, said the Bench’s order would not prevent the petitioner from filing an appeal under section 18 of the Arms Act before the appropriate authority. If such an appeal is filed within 30 days, the authority should consider the same without insisting on the period of limitation as the matter was pending before the court for quite some time.

The legislator had filed a writ petition stating he was an Opposition MLA and faced a threat to his life. He had received anonymous calls. Hence, he applied for a licence in November 2006 to possess a revolver. But, the Commissioner rejected the request saying he was involved in three criminal cases. He had prayed the court seeking a writ to call for the records relating to the Commissioner’s proceedings and quash the same and a direction to the Commissioner to grant him a revolver licence.

A single Judge had said none of the reasons given in section 14 of the Arms Act had been stated for rejecting the petitioner’s application. The criminal cases against Mr. Kalairajan were due to his participation in political agitations. No charge sheet had been filed in any case till date.

Challenging this order, the police Commissioner submitted that after verifying the antecedents of Mr. Kalairajan, his claim for an arms licence was rejected. The single Judge’s observation that there was violation of principles of natural justice since no hearing was given to the MLA was factually incorrect.

Earlier, the Division Bench had granted interim stay of the operation of the single Judge’s order.

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