Point of Law: Applications for licences under Section 14 and Section 15 of Act 1959, the provisions of Section 13 (3) (b) can be relied upon for assimilating any "good reason" in order to grant, renew or refuse the licences, however, except under the circumstances mentioned under Section 13(3)(a)(i) and (ii) of Act, 1959.

JUDGMENT :

SHAJI P. CHALY, J.

1. The captioned writ petitions are before us on a reference made by a learned single Judge of this Court as per the order dated 15th February, 2016.

2. The subject issue involved in the reference arises under the provisions of the Arms Act, 1959 (for short ‘Act 1959’). The learned single Judge doubted the correctness of the judgments of this Court in Muhammed Shafi vs. District Collector, 2012 (1) KLT 427 and Chandran Nair vs. Additional District Magistrate, 2015 (1) KHC 351, whereby it was held that grant/refusal of the fire arm licence can only be based on the grounds enumerated under Sections 14 and 15 of the Act, 1959 respectively.

3. According to the learned single Judge, the grant/refusal of licence shall also be taking into consideration the requirements of Section 13 (3)(b), which stipulates that a licence under Section 3 in any other case or a licence under Section 4, Section 5, Section 6, Section 10 or Section 12 shall be granted only if the licensing authority is satisfied that the person by whom the licence is required has a good reason for obtaining the same.

4. Therefore, according to the learned single Judge, on a combined reading of Section 13(3)(b) with Sections 14 and 15(3) of the Act 1959, it can be seen that the authority has to be satisfied that there exists “good reason” for grant as well as renewal of licence, apart grounds referred to in Section 14. With the above view, the learned single Judge has observed that, in the judgments in Muhammed Shafi and Chandran Nair (supra), the impact of Section 13(3)(b) of the Act, 1959 has not been taken into consideration while granting and renewing the fire- arm licence.

5. Therefore, after assimilating the legal circumstances, the learned single Judge was of the opinion that absence of any of the grounds referred to in Section 14 of Act, 1959, would not entitle any automatic renewal of licence, unless it is felt that there exists “good reason” for granting or renewing the licence. It was, accordingly, that the writ petitions are referred for an authoritative pronouncement by a Bench of superior strength.

6. We have heard the learned counsel for the petitioners Sri. K.M. Sathyanatha Menon, Sri. Saji Kuriachan, Sri. Peter Jose Christo and Others and the learned Senior Government Pleader Sri. Tek Chand for the State and its officials, and perused the pleadings and materials on record.

7. In order to have a proper understanding of the issues referred to by the learned single Judge, it is better that the relevant provisions of the Act, 1959 are deliberated and discussed.

8. The Act, 1959 has undergone various amendments, the last of which being the Amendment Act 48 of 2019. Arms Act, 1959 was enacted to consolidate and amend the law relating to arms and ammunition. The Act, 1959 and the Rules thereto regulate the acquisition, possession, use, manufacture, transfer, sale, transport, export and import of arms and ammunition and punishment for contravention of the provisions of the Act, in order to curb illegal weapons and violence stemming from them. Amendments were brought to this statute in order to tackle the situations that occurred during the course of time.

9. The term “fire-arms” is defined under Section 2(1)(e) to mean arms of any description designed or adapted to discharge a projectile or projectiles of any kind by the action of any explosive or other forms of energy and includes the arms referred to therein. Section 3 of Chapter II deals with “licence for acquisition and possession of firearms and ammunition” and it reads thus:

“3. Licence for acquisition and possession of fire-arms and ammunition:

(1) No person shall acquire, have in his possession, or carry any fire-arm or ammunition unless he holds in this behalf a licence issued in accordance with the provisions of this Act and the rules made thereunder:

Provided that a person may, without himself holding a licence, carry any fire-arm or ammunition in the presence, or under the written aut