IMPORTANT POINT
For possession of a fire arm under the Arms Act, 1959 must have an element of conscious possession in the person charged with such offence, and where he has not the actual physical possession, he has none-the-less a power or control over the weapon.

JUDGMENT

Anu Malhotra, J.—The petitioner vide the present petition seeks the quashing of the FIR No.357/2015, PS IGI Airport registered under Section 25 of the Arms Act, 1959 submitting to the effect that though the petitioner was found in possession of three bullets in one of her bags under Tag No.0098858904 at level-4 of T-3 at the IGI Airport where she was present under Boarding No.28 travelling A1-834/A1 016 on 16/8/15 on sector Bhopal/Delhi/Amritsar without any license for the said ammunition, she was not in conscious possession of the same and thus, the proceedings qua the FIR have necessarily to be quashed.

2. The petitioner has submitted that she was accompanied by her husband in the said travel who had a valid arms license and a written submission was also made to the SHO, IGI Airport by her husband. The petitioner has further submitted that she is a resident of Bhopal and was married to Mr. Sabjit Bhatia who is a resident of Jalandhar, (Punjab) and she had gone to her parental home in Bhopal to stay with them for a short period in the month of August, 2015 and her husband had come to pick her up from Jalandhar and had boarded a flight on 14.08.2015 from Amritsar to Bhopal with a Transit Flight from Delhi to Bhopal with Jet Airways and the petitioner submitted the copy of the air ticket of the Jet Airways to that effect. The petitioner further submits that on 16.8.2015, the husband of the petitioner had also booked a ticket along with the petitioner in Economic Class with Air India from Bhopal to Amritsar via transit flight from Delhi to Amritsar with baggage allowance and the petitioner has annexed the copy of the said ticket as well.

3. Inter alia the petitioner submitted that both her husband and father-in-law have valid Arms Licenses of Punjab and that her husband also held a valid arm license bearing No.CP/ARM/D2/0512/005 which was registered at their residential address valid upto 17.5.2018 and submitted the copy of the said arm license. The petitioner has further submitted that her father-in-law and husband used to go for their shooting session in the shooting club and that the petitioner had nothing to do with the weapon and the cartridges. The petitioner has further submitted that on 14.08.2015, when her husband had come to pick her up from her parental house, by mistake the cartridges were carried by him in his pant, when he boarded the flight from Amritsar to Bhopal via Delhi and none of the checking staff in both the places had questioned him but that on 16.08.2015 when the petitioner was returning from Bhopal to Amritsar with her husband at the time of boarding the transit flight, Mr. Prakash Chauhan of GMR Security at Level-4 of T-3 at 18:29 hours checked her baggage and in one bag under Tag No.0098858904, three (3) cartridges were detected by him, of which the petitioner had no knowledge and she apprised Mr. Prakash Chauhan of the same as well as of the valid arms license possessed by her husband. The petitioner has further submitted that she is innocent and thus, seeks redressal by the quashing of the FIR.

4. The petitioner has further submitted that even her husband did not have the conscious possession of the cartridges which were inadvertently carried by him to Bhopal.

5. Notice of the petition was issued to the State and was accepted by the learned APP on behalf of the State.

6. The status report dated 15.01.2020 under the signatures of the SHO, PS IGI Airport affirms the factum of the arms license having been issued to the husband of the petitioner i.e. Mr. Sabjit Singh Bhatia s/o Ranbir Singh which was issued on 19.05.2012 and was valid upto 18.05.2015 which arms license was renewed from 18.05.2015 to 17.05.2018 with a warning with it having been revalidated four months after its expiry and it has been submitted further that the offence was committed on 16.08.2015. The copy of the charge sheet was also submitted by the State which reiterates the averments made in the FIR.

7. The charge sh