Court Judgements for Arms License

[kaushalrb]

Hi,

I have attached 6 judgments of various High Courts for Arms license. Hope it helps. Part 2 follows

Kaushal

[goodboy_mentor]

I appreciate the hard work done by author of this thread to consolidate various High Court judgments together. His Part 2 of this thread containing more judgments can be read at http://indiansforguns.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=15639

I would like to point to one very important Constitutional fact which is missing in these judgments. Some judgments have very correctly mentioned that arms are guaranteed fundamental right under Right to Life and Liberty of Article 21 of the Constitution. But there is another Constitutional fact that arms(includes firearms, ammunition and explosives) are also a guaranteed Right to Freedom of citizens under Article 19 of the Constitution. Though this matter is discussed in detail at http://indiansforguns.com/viewtopic.php ... 15#p117785 I explain it here again in brief for the sake of convenience. Wherever in the Article 19(1) of the Constitution is joining two fundamental rights, it is joining them with the word "and". I am illustrating it below with extracts of concerned sub clauses in Article 19(1):

19. Protection of certain rights regarding freedom of speech, etc.—(1) All citizens shall have the right—
(a) to freedom of speech and expression; (It is referring to the Right to Freedom of Speech and The Right to Freedom of Expression)
(b) to assemble peaceably and without arms; (It is referring to the Right to Assemble Peaceably and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms which also exists under Article 19. Please note: If arms are not guaranteed as fundamental right under Article 19 then the question of saying "without arms" within Article 19 does not arise.)
(e) to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India; 1[and] (It is referring to the Right to Reside in any part of the territory of India and the Right to settle in any part of the territory of India)

If we read Article 19(1)b carefully with "legal eye", it becomes very clear that it is talking of at least two rights, i.e. the Right to Assemble Peaceably AND the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

Article 19(1)b does not mean that citizens cannot assemble with arms. It is not taking away or extinguishing any right by saying "without", it is merely stating one combination of the rights acknowledged by the Constitution. Please note that because of this fact, there is similar use of the word "and" in Article 19(1)(b) exactly as used in Articles 19(1)(a) and 19(1)(e). For example of Article 19(1)(a), it guarantees freedom of speech and expression. "freedom of speech and expression" also includes "freedom of speech and without expression" since these two are negative rights and citizen may choose to use only freedom of speech without expression. Similarly when Article 19(1)(b) says "to assemble peaceably and without arms", it is merely stating one combination of the existing rights acknowledged by the Constitution.

An example of simultaneous exercise of these two fundamental rights is The Punjab Village and Small Towns Patrol Act, 1918. Under this act, in order to do patrolling, citizens exercise two fundamental rights, right to assemble(peaceably as well as violently if situation compels) and the right to arms. If challenged by violent unlawful elements, the peaceful assembly with arms may transform into a violent assembly in order to safeguard their right to life. If the force of unlawful elements is greater than citizens, then the armed assembly of citizens may dissemble violently to safeguard their right to life. And such an assembly may also dissemble with arms peaceably if they are successful in overcoming the force of unlawful elements.

Since rights guaranteed under Article 19(it includes arms) are more secured for all citizens of India than those under Article 21, Section 13(3)(a)(i) of Arms Act 1959 is flowing from Article 19, thus it makes it obligatory for the licensing authority to issue license of smooth bore gun to citizen of India for self defense, sport or crop protection, provided the applicant is not disqualified under Section 14. All the five ingredients in Section 13(3)(a)(i) of Arms Act 1959 i.e. citizen, smooth bore gun, self protection, sport and crop protection are covered by Articles 19 and 21. This extremely important subtle Constitutional fact may appear insignificant to a layman but is of profound importance in law if seen from the angle of RKBA and dealing with the nuisance of licensing.

Also fundamental rights and fundamental duties are two sides of the same coin. One cannot exist without the other. If one reads Article 51A(c) and (d) of the Constitution carefully, it also points to the fact that citizens have a corresponding fundamental right i.e. RKBA in Articles 19 and 21, that is absolutely necessary to this fundamental duty.