The Madhya Pradesh High Court opined that the empty cartridges do not contain explosives, fulmination or fissionable material or any type of noxious liquid, gas, or other such things. Therefore, empty cartridges cannot be said to be classified under the definition of “Ammunition”.
Brief Facts:
The facts of the case are that one CISF officer was checking the luggage of the passengers at the Airport when he came across 2 empty cartridges (EFCS). The luggage belonged to the Applicant. On being questioned, the Applicant could not produce any valid license and stated that he had gone to a shooting range where he picked the same during practice.
FIR was lodged and registered against the Applicant under Section 25 of the Arms Act, 1959 (hereinafter referred to as the “Act”).
The present application is filed to quash the said FIR.
Contentions of the Applicant:
It was argued that the empty cartridges do not come under the scope of the definition of “Cartridge” or “Ammunition”. It was contended that empty cartridges at the most can only be categorized as the minor part of ammunition and the same also is exempted under Section 45(d) of the Act.
Contentions of the Respondent:
It was contended that the Applicant failed to produce a valid license and the seized cartridges do fall under the definition of “Ammunitions”.
Observations of the Court:
It was noted that the empty cartridges do not contain explosives, fulmination or fissionable material or any type of noxious liquid, gas, or other such things. Therefore, empty cartridges cannot be said to be classified under the definition of “Ammunition”.
The Bench also noted that at best, the empty cartridges can be classified as the minor part of ammunition and the same also is exempted under Section 45(d) of the Act.
The decision of the Court:
Hence, based on the above-mentioned reasons, the proceedings were quashed and accordingly, the present petition was allowed.
Case Title: Taher v. The State of Madhya Pradesh SHO
Coram: Hon’ble Shri Justice Satyendra Kumar Singh
Case No.: Misc. Criminal Case No. 57707 of 2022
Advocate for Applicant: Adv. Shri Palash Choudhary
Advocate for Respondents: Advs. Ms. Nisha Jaiswal, Shri Manish Sharma
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