( 1 ) THIS is an appeal under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent. The appeal is directed against the judgment and order dated January 25, 1968, passed by a learned single Judge of the Court in a writ proceeding which was registered as Civil Rule No. 673 (W) of 1964. The point involved in this appeal is one of law and the point is whether a notice to show cause is necessary to be given by the licensing authority prior to revoking a gun licence under Section 17 (3) of the Arms Act, 1959 (hereinafter referred to as the said Act ). Such a point was not raised at the trial but has been raised in this appeal as a point of law by Mr. Dutt appearing in support of this appeal. The undisputed facts may be set out very briefly as follows.

( 2 ) THE petitioner (appellant before us) was the holder of a gun licence bearing No. 2372 BH. In May 1962 over a certain incident a criminal case was started against the petitioner by a neighbour Byomkesh Chakrabarti who having seized the petitioner's gun deposited the same with the local police station along with some fired cartridges and some live cartridges. There was a counter case by the petitioner against the said Byomkesh. Eventually