NRAI Recommendation for All India Permit

[atulgupta1]

Hi,

I was applying for an all India permit on my arms license to carry my .22 / .32 Walther GSP sports pistol to all the competitions. The DC office showed me a letter from NRAI of another shooter where the recommendation can from them to permit / grant the shooter an all-India license. Apparently, NRAI charges Rs.570/- to issue this letter. I could not find the format of this letter on their site.

Can anyone suggest the procedure to apply for the same?

Best

Atul

[nm]

You can apply on plain paper and pay the fee.

I think there is an eligibility criteria that one should be a renowned shot.

NM

[singhfp]

Mr Atul Gupta,
Please note you can apply for all India arms Licence and it goes to the MHA for approval which obviously a difficult process and next to impossible.

If I am not mistaken your particular case belongs to District-Mohali, Punjab, where you had applied for Extension of Area Validity as All India as an aspiring shooter as you participated All India GV Mavlankar Shooting Championship 2011 in the category of AIR PISTOL.

Please note:
You are referring to MHA notification for Aspiring Shooters no. SO 1988 (E) dated 4th August 2014. In which under the “Other conditions of exemption” the licensing authority has been authorised to grant Arms Licence to Aspiring shooter’s with All India Area Validity without referring it to the central or the State Government for any approval.
But in the schedule at SNo 4 under Categories/descriptions of arms, it says “Type of arms used in the event in which the person is an Aspiring Shooter” So technically you are an AIR PISTOL shooter which does not requires a licence.

Now under the Conditions column there are 2 conditions for Aspiring Shooter.
(1) The exemption (All India) is restricted to one weapon of any category in which the person is an Aspiring Shooter.
Since your shooting category is AIR PISTOL you do not qualify as an Aspiring Shooter.
(2) The person must hold a certificate issued by the appropriate certifying body referred to in paragraph 3 of this notification.

Definition of Certifying bodies:-
As per Notification SO 1988 (E) the certifying bodies for ASPIRING SHOOTER shall be the National Rifle Association of India or the approved or affiliated State Rifle Association(s) of NRAI. The Certificate issued (RECOMMENDATION LETTER) shall mention the Qualifying Score along with the Minimum Qualifying Score for the event as specified by NRAI or the State Rifle Association. But in NRAI notification dated 18/10/2014 specified The state associations must put up the scores of their State Championships on their website and/or send the scores to the NRAI within seven days failing which such competition cannot be considered valid for the said purpose.
Now no state association sends the score/data to NRAI hence they are not the certifying body for ASPIRING SHOOTER

Now please note in this context
MQS for aspiring shooters was set in NRAI notification dated 18/10/2014 and AIR weapon events were not covered in this.
Further it was mentioned All Events held on or after 6/3/2013 shall be considered by all certifying bodies to certify the scores/MQS for the eligibility under this category. However in future, no scores older than 2 years from the date of certification/recommendation can be considered by any certifying body. The state associations must put up the scores of their State Championships on their website and/or send the scores to the NRAI within seven days failing which such competition cannot be considered valid for the said purpose.
Now since your score is of 2011 it cannot be considered any way.

Still you want to contact the NRAI for this then
As a general practice NRAI Issues recommendation letter certifying that the applicant is an ASPIRING SHOOTER which is dispatched to the applicants address and addressed to the District Magistrate concerned. These letters are issued in case of New Licence recommendation and cases where Area extension as All India is to be done. There is a nominal fee of Rs 575/- paid to NRAI for this letter and generally takes 10 days. Concerned person is Mr. Parmod Pathak 011-29964091/92/93, you may address your application to the secretary NRAI.

Since you have a .22 / .32 Walther GSP sports pistol which you just acquired from one of the national shooters representing Chandigarh in the Nationals, I recommend you to practice and participate in Northzone or Mavlankar this year and achieve MQS in your respective sport and then apply for all india and ammo increase to 8000.

Hope this will clarify your doubts

Good Luck

[singhfp]

As per the decision dated 18th October 2014 of the Governing Body of NRAI

Regular Air weapon shooters: (those who have taken part in at least 2 recognized competitions) also shall be treated ASPIRING TARGET SHOOTERS without him/her having participated in respective firearms event.

Therefore following guideline to be followed.
All Regular air weapon shooters who achieve MQS required for participation in the NSCC in their respective event [men, women, junior men, junior women, Youth Men and Youth Women] either; in GVM or any zonal competitions or in the state championship or NSCC or National Games and all such All India Level Competitions; shall be treated as ASPIRING SHOOTER of respective category [RIFLE/PISTOL].

The details of such scores are here as under:
PEEP SIGHT AIR RIFLE (ISSF Rules) 565/600
PEEP SIGHT AIR RIFLE (NR Rules) 377/400
AIR PISTOL (ISSF Rules) 545/600
AIR PISTOL (NR Rules) 363/400

Air weapon events are broad based and maximum number of shooters are participating in these events, hence no grace marks has been afforded to shooters applying for Arms license on the basis of their performance in air weapon events.

[singhfp]

This is the letter that NRAI issues

NRAI/ ABC/ 2016

January 16, 2016

The District Magistrate
District ABC
STATE XYZ

Sub:- Recommendation letter for All India Arm Licence.

Dear Sir
It is submitted that Mr. ABC S/o DEF R/o XYC is holder of Arm Licence No. 123 valid up to 17 January 2019.

He is also an Aspiring Shooter in terms of Ministry of Home Affairs Notification No. S.O. 1988{E) dated 4th August 2014 as per his performance as under:-

SNO COMPETITIONS EVENT MQS SCORE ACHIEVED BY SHOOTERS

He is taking part in Shooting Competitions regularly and the Area validity of his above Arm Licence is for XYZ State only. He finds it difficult to carry his Arms to all over India for participation in the shooting Competitions which are being conducted by us at various places in India.

We hereby recommend that area validity of his Arm Licence No. 123 may be extended to ALL INDIA.

Thanking you,

Yours faithfully,


Sd/-
RAJIV BHATIA
Secretary

[aadhaulya]

There is a notification to the effect that AIV can be issued to renowned shooters, the AIV can be issued by the local licensing authority. I am not aware of any letter being issued by NRAI may be they are still issuing such letters.

Atul

I was also not aware that one can keep a gun with more than 1 barrel and that too of different calibers. Probably renowned shooters are allowed to keep such guns.
I am learning something new every day.

[singhfp]

Regarding weapon with spare or conversion barrels or 2 barrels

Now again referring to MHA notification for no. SO 1988 (E) dated 4th August 2014.

Under the “Other conditions of exemption” para 4 it says
For exemptees at serial number 1 (Arjuna Awardee)and serial number 2 (International Medalist/
Renowned Shooter) of the Schedule, A weapon with spare or conversion barrels is to be treated as one weapon only at the time of endorsement on the licence and full details of the said weapon and such spare or conversion barrel shall be endorsed on the respective Arms Licence.

I wonder if you will be able to enter this weapon on your licence legally because you and not an Arjuna Awardee nor an International Medalist/ Renowned Shooter.

The only ground you have is that you have purchased this pistol from a Renowned Shooter after completion of 2 years of sale ban, in government system these things go through unnoticed as the clerks are hardly aware of these technical facts.

Technically a Renowned Shooter can sell his sports weapon which he imported after completion of 2 years only to an Aspiring Shooter.

So Best of luck, I wish you get it entered on your licence without any issues.

[mundaire]

singhfp, to the best of my knowledge it has always been and still is perfectly legal for an arms license holder to have more than one barrel endorsed along with the firearm for which the spare/ conversion barrel is meant. The spares can be and most often are in different calibres. In such cases, each barrel no. along with calibre is endorsed along with the firearm on the license.

Cheers!
Abhijeet

[singhfp]

Thanks Abhijeet, I really appreciate your input,

But as per my understanding you have to be a Renowned Shooter In two events if you want to import a weapon spare or conversion barrels.
We were denied import for a spare trap barrel along with a skeet gun this year by the DGFT but the way out was ordering a spare barrel of 29 inch without mentioning it’s a Trap barrel.

Similarly in the case of pistol, conversion barrel of different calibre is allowed if you are a Renowned Shooter in 2 events, Example STANDARD PISTOL EVENT for a .22 LR and CENTRE FIRE PISTOL EVENT for .32 S&W Long

would appreciate your comments on my understanding

[singhfp]

To my understanding Abhijeet ji,
A conversion barrel of a different caliber (not a spare barrel of same caliber) is considered as a different weapon / 2nd weapon if you have a licence as a normal citizen.

The exemption of treating these type of weapons as one weapon while entering on the Armes Licence (irrespective of caliber) is only granted to Arjuna Awardee, International Medalist / Renowned Shooter. Even Aspiring shooters and Junior Shooters are kept out of this prevue.

I may be wrong but this is my understanding as per the MHA notification for no. SO 1988 (E) dated 4th August 2014.
Would highly appreciate your valuable feedback

[singhfp]

Abhijeet ji,

There is a rumor that started at GVM Jaipur this year that the NRAI, MHA & DGFT may come up with a notification in December 2015 allowing the Aspiring shooters with import of 1 weapon of the category the person is aspiring shooter with a sale ban of 7 years along with 8000 ammunition.

Since December is over the next general body of meeting of NRAI is to be held in Feb end 2016, officials say the matter may be taken up then as its just pending for the final sign-off.

Do you have any idea if NRAI or MHA is planning anything of this sort ?

[singhfp]

Abhijeet ji & Mr Atul Gupta, i was waiting for your inputs on the topic

[goodboy_mentor]

Understanding of mundaire is perfect from legal angle. No need to complicate the understanding. The gun may have multiple barrels, but it has only single action. thus it is a single gun. So long multiple barrels and their calibers are endorsed on the license, nothing much to worry for any license holder regardless of anything.

[atulgupta1]

Hello singhfp,

I have been traveling and just got back to see lots of inputs on this thread. I appreciate you taking pains to give full information & clarity on the subject. This will be most helpful for me to follow the procedures to get the desired approvals. You are obviously well informed on all the procedures.

On another note, how does one participate in AIGVM even if one has qualified in the state competitions, if it is held in another state where the participant does not have a license to carry his sports weapon? Is there a provision in law for temporary permit to carry the weapon for such competitions? You may have already experienced such situations.

Please advise.

Thanks

Atul

Added in 3 minutes 21 seconds:
BTW singhfp, I'm surprised you know so much detail about my case. Have we met before? I'd love it if you can visit my personal shooting range in Chandigarh.

[singhfp]

I am glad atul ji you replied and you appreciated my subject knowledge, it is just that being a sports shooter one has to be well updated with the policy and procedures which directly or indirectly affect you to get the desired benefit.

Coming to your question, a carry permit of weapon is granted by the District Magistrate concerned, in case of Mohali, the powers of DM are being executed by the ADC(G), you can give a write request for carry permit in the prescribed format available at the suwidha centre for Rs 70/-, there is a suwidha fee of Rs 300/- for this process. Once the application is submitted ADC calls you for a personal interview where you can state the fact that you are participating in a shooting championship to be held out of your home state and a carry permit is required. Verifying your credentials the ADC will grant you the carry permit which would be valid for a period of 3 to 6 months.


I personally faced this challenge, as in the edistrict system only one application can be logged in at a time and my application for area extension for all india was pending in the system and I could not apply for a carry permit, hence I had no option except to drop my plans to participate in the Nationals.