Allahabad High Court
Ashok Kumar Pandey vs State Of U.P. Thru Secy. Home And ... on 29 August, 2022
Bench: Saurabh Lavania
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD, LUCKNOW BENCH
?Court No. - 19
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 2754 of 2020
Petitioner :- Ashok Kumar Pandey
Respondent :- State Of U.P. Thru Secy. Home And Ors.
Counsel for Petitioner :- Manoj Kumar Misra,Amit Kant Saxena,Rahul Roshan Dubey
Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Saurabh Lavania,J.
Heard learned Counsel for the petitioner and learned Counsel for the respondent.
The present petition has been filed, assailing the order dated 21.07.2017 passed by District Magistrate Amethi whereby the license of the petitioner has been cancelled as well as the order dated 11.01.2018 passed by Commissioner, Faizabad Mandal, Faizabad in appeal filed by the petitioner under Section 18 of the Arms Act.
Learned Counsel for the petitioner has submitted that against the applicant four FIR(s) were lodged as Case Crime No. 17 of 2016, Case Crime No. 15 of 2016, Case Crime No. 201 of 2016 and Case Crime No. 202 of 2016, in the same police station i.e. Sangrampur District Amethi. A bare perusal of the FIR(s) which are annexed to the counter affidavit would show that story set up by the prosecution in all the cases is almost identical/same. As per FIR(s) the petitioner and the co-accused took some money for providing job in the Army, but the said job could not be provided as such the amount indicated in the FIR(s) was demanded back, therefore, informant of the FIR(s) were threatened by the applicant by using Fire Arm. This story is completely concocted. He further submitted that in fact licensing authority/ District Magistrate Amethi, as also Commissioner, Faizabad Mandal, Faizabad, based upon the pending cases has passed the impugned orders, which is unsustainable in the eyes of law. In support of his submission he has placed reliance on the judgments of this Court passed in Writ Petition No. 1501 (M/S) of 2009 (Abdul Khaliq Vs. State of U.P.) dated 11.01.2016, Writ Petition No. 6354 (M/S) of 2009 (Rajesh Kumar Gupta Vs. State of U.P. and Others) dated 09.02.2011, Writ Petition No. 735 (M/S) of 2010 (Vishwanath Singh Vs. Commissioner Lucknow Mandal, Lucknow and Others) dated 22.07.2015 as well as Writ C No. 29703 of 2021 (Krishna Prasad alias Krishna Prasad Tiwari Vs. State) dated 15.03.2022.
He further submitted that the District Magistrate Amethi, no doubt can suspend or revoke the license, but for the same in his order he has to record the reasons based upon the cogent material relating to public peace or tranquility on account of continuance of armed license in petitioner's possession and having armed license, he would disturb the peace and public safety, however, in this case the license has been cancelled only on the allegation in the FIR(s) as such in view of settled law in this regard, the impugned order(s) are liable to be set aside.
Sri G.K.Pathak, learned State Counsel has opposed the prayer of learned Counsel for the petitioner. He stated that against the petitioner there are as many as four criminal cases and in three cases the allegation and that he threatened the concerned by using his licensed arm, thus the impugned order(s) are not liable to be interfered. Prayer is to dismiss the present petition.
Considering the aforesaid submission of learned Counsel for the parties as also the observations made by District Magistrate Amethi, as also Commissioner, Faizabad Mandal, Faizabad, this Court is of the view that impugned order(s) have been passed only on the basis of pending criminal cases against the petitioner. As such taking note of the aforesaid as also the settled law on this issue, the present petition is allowed and the order(s) dated 21.07.2017 passed by District Magistrate Amethi and order dated 11.01.2018 passed by Commissioner, Faizabad Mandal, Faizabad, are hereby quashed. Consequences shall follow.
Order Date :- 29.8.2022
Jyoti/-
