IN THE HIGH COURT OF MADHYA PRADESH AT GWALIOR BEFORE HON'BLE SHRI JUSTICE GURPAL SINGH AHLUWALIA th ON THE 8 OF SEPTEMBER, 2022 WRIT PETITION No. 6716 of 2020 BETWEEN:-

COLLECTOR @ ARVIND LODHI S/O JABAR SINGH LODHI, AGED 42 YEARS, OCCUPATION: KRISHI, RESIDENT OF RAJENDRA CONVENT SCHOOL KE SAMNE, LASHKAR ROAD, BHIND, THANA CITY KOTWALI, DISTRICT BHIND (MADHYA PRADESH)

….....PETITIONER (BY SHRI SHIV PRATAP SINGH KUSHWAH – ADVOCATE)

AND THE STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH THROUGH DANDADHIKARI, DISTRICT BHIND (MADHYA PRADESH)

….....RESPONDENT (BY SHRI A.K.NIRANKARI – GOVERNMENT ADVOCATE)

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This petition coming on for hearing this day, the Court passed the following:

ORDER

At the outset, counsel for respondent prays for further time to file return.

2- Looking to the short controversy involved in the present case as well as number of opportunities already granted to the respondent and the statement made by State counsel on 01.09.2022 after obtaining instruction from respondent, the prayer for further time for filing return is hereby rejected.

3- This petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India has been filed seeking following reliefs :

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4- The case in short is that the petitioner is holding an arm license. The Model Code of Conduct came into operation by reasons of Loksabha election 2019. The licensees were directed to deposit their arms in the police station. Since all the armed licensees did not deposit their arms, therefore, recommendation was made by the Superintendent of Police for cancellation of their license and, accordingly, by order dated 24.04.2019 passed in Case No. D;w@14@jhMh,e@19@2019@538, the District Magistrate Bhind canceled the arm license of petitioner on the ground that the petitioner had failed to deposit his arm in the police station.

5- Being aggrieved by the said order, the petitioner preferred an appeal which too has been dismissed by order dated 25.02.2020 passed by the Commissioner, Chambal Division Morena in case No.0093/2019-

20/vihy ¼vkElZ½. The order was challenged by petitioner on the ground that the petitioner had deposited his weapon on 17.03.2019. Petitioner had taken the aforesaid ground specifically in the grounds of appeal which is evident from paragraph No. 4 of order passed by the appellate authority, but inspite of that, the said aspect has not been taken into consideration. The petitioner has also filed a copy of the deposit receipt dated 17.03.2019 issued by Police Station Mehgaon district Bhind to show that he had deposited his firearm in compliance of direction given by the authorities.

6- Accordingly, by order dated 03.01.2022, the State counsel was directed to verify the correctness of deposit slip (Annexure P-2). On 01.09.2022, the State counsel after seeking instructions from respondent submitted that the gun was found to be deposited and the deposit slip is correct and, accordingly, he prayed for a week's time to file reply. Today also, the counsel for respondent prays for time to file the reply.

7- It is really shocking that although the petitioner had raised a specific ground in his appeal before the appellate authority that there was no default on his part and he had deposited his arm on 17.03.2019 but the appellate authority did not adhere to the said ground and rejected the appeal in a very casual manner. It is clear from order dated 24.04.2019 passed by the District Magistrate Bhind that, in view of the Loksabha election 2019 all the Arms License were suspended by order dated 10.03.2019 and all the licensees were directed to deposit thei