Hon’ble Siddhartha Varma, J.—The instant writ petition has been filed against the order dated 31.7.2009 passed by the Additional District Magistrate City, Ghaziabad by which he cancelled the fire-arm licence of the petitioner and against the appellate order passed by the Commissioner, Meerut Mandal Meerut by which the appeal of the petitioner was dismissed.

2. Learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the only ground which has been taken by the cancelling authority is that there were criminal cases pending against the petitioner. Learned counsel for the petitioner has further submitted that the mere pendency of criminal cases is not a ground for the cancellation of a fire-arm licence. He has further submitted that the State of Uttar Pradesh has come out with certain guidelines on 7.2.2018 and the fire-arm licence could have been cancelled only after the cancelling authority found that any of the guidelines was violated. He has submitted that even though, the guidelines have been published in the year 2018, they were always known to the State Government and the authorities were to be guided by the guidelines which have now been published. The guidelines which hav