ARMS AMENDMENT RULES 2012

[neeraj]

MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS
NOTIFICATION
New Delhi, the 24th July, 2012

GS.R. 585(E):-In exercise of the powers conferred by Sections5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 21, 41 and Section 44 of the Arms Act, 1959 (54 of 1959), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules further to amend the Arms Rules, 1962, namely :-

1. (1) These rules may be called the Arms (Amendment) Rules, 2012.

(2) They shall come into force on the expiry of sixty days from the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. In the Arms Rules, 1962, in rule 54, after sub-rule (4), the following sub-rules shall be inserted, namely:-

"(5) The licensing authority and the renewing authority at the Centre or at the State level, while granting a license or renewing a license, as the case may be, shall enter the data of the record in an electronic format duly approved by the Central Government or the State Government, as the case may be.

(6) The licensing authority and the renewing authority shall also enter such data as are required in an electronic automated system as developed by the National Informatics Centre for this purpose and the aforesaid electronic automated system shall generate a unique number without which no arms license shall be considered as valid with effect from the 1st October, 2015."

[F.No. V-II026/64/20IO-Arms]
M. GOPAL REDDY, Jt. Secy.

[Pradyumna]

Good for us , the law abiding responsible gun owners.

[goodboy_mentor]

What is so good about it for being treated as potential criminals and suspects? It shows that the corrupt government is bent on distrusting its law abiding citizens. Are the criminals lining up to get arms licenses? What material government has to justify that creating these costly databases is going to serve a good purpose?

When other democratic countries are dismantling these costly databases that served no good purpose, this government is creating the database. Database was created by Hitler before disarming the Jews for massacre.

Similar Notification was also issued on May 21, 2010 to amend Arms Rules 1962. Was it approved by Parliament? I am attaching the copy of that Notification with this post below.

[neeraj]

Sir what u r referring is Policy. This is a notification already published in the Gazette of India and the Arms Rules stand amended. With due regards.

[goodboy_mentor]

Sir I request you to please read the attachment I have posted with my above reply. It is not a policy but a notification to amend Arms Rules 1962. Any changes to Arms Rules 1962 need approval of Parliament. Extract of Section 44(3) of Arms Act 1959 is mentioned below:

(3) Every rule made under this section shall be laid as soon as may be after it is made before each House of Parliament while it is in session for a total period of thirty days which may be comprised in one session or in two successive sessions, and if before the expiry of the session in which it is so laid or the session immediately following, both Houses agree in making any modification in the rule or both Houses agree that the rule should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be, so however that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule.

[neeraj]

The referred notification of 2010 was laid in the Parliament in 2010 itself and no modification was proposed and it was carried out unamended. The recent notification will be laid down in the winter session. with due regards

[goodboy_mentor]

But Lok Sabha website is not showing any Arms (Amendment) Rules, 2010 being laid down or passed in Parliament by Ministry of Home Affairs in the year 2010. It is only showing The Arms (Amendment) Bill, 2010 which is still pending. Anyways thanks for updating this new notification.

[neeraj]

U r absolutely right. Arms Bill pertains to amendment in Section 13 of the Arms Act, which is still pending

[neeraj]

Just to add: Amendment in Arms Rules are brought in by issuance of Gazette Notification(s). Later on the amendments are to be laid in the Parliament as per Section 44(3) of the Arms Act, 1959. Subject to any modification proposed in the Parliament. the amendment in rules is generally laid and approved. However if the parliament desires any modification/amendment, the amended notification has to be issued afresh by the Government in the Ministry of Home Affairs as per the modifications suggested by the Parliament.

[goodboy_mentor]

Arms Bill pertains to amendment in Section 13 of the Arms Act, which is still pending

Yes that draconian and clever Bill was referred to the Standing Committee on Home Affairs. Standing Committee strongly opposed that Bill and exposed the real game being played by Ministry of Home Affairs. That report can be read on Rajya Sabha website here http://164.100.47.5/newcommittee/report ... rs/151.pdf

Yes if the Lok Sabha website is to be believed for purpose of our discussion, then that Arms (Amendment) Rules, 2010 was never laid before Parliament as per Section 44(3) of Arms Act 1959. Thus that Notification about making the changes to Arms Rules 1962 issued in 2010 has no force of law now, since it did not satisfy the conditions laid down under Section 44(3) of Arms Act 1959.

[Katana]

GB is right. Canada tried this registry business and failed miserably. Ultimately they bunked it.

Anyway, the Arms Act provided for a census since it's inception. Why didn't the government ever conduct one?

[goodboy_mentor]

Yes excellent point, every provision of law has a purpose. Since arms are fundamental right under Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution, the restrictions if ever required have to be the least restrictive. That is why Parliament also intended that no database be created, hence the provision for census in Section 42 of Arms Act 1959. Creating of database can cause grave security risks for the nation that is why Parliament never wanted such a database to be created, that is why provision for census in Section 42 of Arms Act 1959. Otherwise question of census does not arise.

[Pradyumna]

What is wrong in the centralised data base issue ? At least we can know whether the licence is genuine or not ? There are a lot of fake licences floating around. Recently approximately 36 licences were pending for renewal in Keonjhar DM office issued from NE states ( All India validity ) used by the private security personnel around the mines area. All are fakes. The lic.holders are not attending the LA office as the office requested to deposit the arms for verification. There are .315s , .30-06s and .12 s. All are absconding. Fake names, fake addresses.

[loner]

Will those data be publicly accessible like the Sex Offender list?
Will those data be covered under RTI?
Trust me, RTI has some serious potential to be exploited. IIRC there was some reporter who misused the RTI act to get info about someone's legal firearm collection and made a assumption of PB=Assault weapon.

[loner]

Kinda off topic but about 6 months ago some reporter in USA gained access to details of CCW holders located in Menlo Park, CA using RTI and posted them on their site. There was about 6 CCW holders in whole Menlo Park area which has over 80k residents, there was the founder of calguns on that list too.