I had applied to Police Commissioner, Mumbai for Transfer of my fathers arms license which has been rejected (Time taken 7 months). Reason given No threat to life
Getting an arms license to enjoy the right to keep and bear arms is not a question of threat or no threat, it is a matter of fundamental right under Articles 19 and 21 of Constitution of India. Arms Act 1959 is just a regulatory law to regulate this fundamental right. Licensing Authourities are not "granting" any arms license, instead are only issuing a copy of arms license that is already issued(guaranteed) to you by the Constitution of India under Articles 19 and 21.
I have also filed an appeal with Home Dept. NO reply yest (Another 7 months)
7 months + 7 months is more than sufficient time given to the State to take a decision, you cannot be kept suffering and prevented from enjoying your fundamental rights for ever and thus have a very good reason to approach High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.
I have seen the Family Heirloom Policy of the Union home ministry and am now filing a writ petition in the High court to consider my case under this policy.
Approaching High Court to enforce an executive "policy" does not make much sense. Rather the matter in question is a question of getting your fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India enforced, hence a fit case for a writ under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.
Request help on the leagal angle for any supporting judgements or information which I could use to make my case stronger.
First I would like to say that these days some of the lawyers tend to build their cases predominantly on basis of case laws, nothing wrong with referring to case laws but depending solely on case laws should be avoided. In the words of Fali S. Nariman, an internationally admired and respected lawyer, over use of "case law" is "case law diarrhea".
Is your lawyer aware that Arms Act 1959 is a law to regulate the fundamental right to keep and bear arms guaranteed under Articles 19 and 21 of Constitution of India? My personal experience says most of the lawyers are not aware of this basic and fundamental fact. If your lawyer is not aware please do make him read this post and this link
http://www.lawyersclubindia.com/forum/R ... -36011.asp Someone may say that there are some precedents of High Court judgments to the contrary, those judgments are erroneous as they did not take into account all the relevant facts or do a complete discussion on the concerned statutory provisions, the related articles of the Constitution from where the statutary provisions flow. There can be no precedent to the facts. It is a fact that since arms are a fundamental right under Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution, arms other than firearms are not regulated under Arms Act 1959 unless the central government issues a notification related to specific types of arms for a specific area under Section 4 of Arms Act 1959.
There are plenty of judgments related to "grant" of arms licenses. You may refer the following:
a)
http://indiansforguns.com/viewtopic.php ... 64#p147708
b)
http://indiansforguns.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=13504
c)
http://indiansforguns.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14497
d)
http://indiansforguns.com/viewtopic.php ... 15#p103621
e)
http://www.indiankanoon.org/doc/1434833/