Stay on cancellation of rifle club member’s shot gun licence

MADURAI: The Madurai bench of the Madras high court has stayed the cancellation of arms licence for a double barrelled shot gun (DBBL) of a Madurai resident by the city police commissioner who has asked him to deposit the weapon to an authorized arms dealer.
The petitioner, D Manohar Raj, a member of the Madurai Rifle Club, moved the high court seeking a stay on the police commissioner’s order dated April 6.Manohar Raj, in his petition, stated that he had to compete in a shooting competition to be held in August and that he was also a member of the National Rifle Association of India. He had in his possession three fire arms, which were permissible under the Arms act and used to renew their licence every three years as mandated.
When the licence renewal came up in December last year, the then Madurai police commissioner had renewed the licence for possession of two arms - .22 rifle and .32 revolver, but without any reason rejected the licence for the DBBL gun, the petition stated. He added that the cancellation of licence was passed five months after he filed an application, which was also illegal.
When the petition came up for hearing, Justice M.S. Ramesh issued orders staying the cancellation of licence and directed the concerned authorities to consider renewing the licence.