The petitioner herein is the holder of an explosive licence. While

certain explosives, crackers etc. were being transported to his shops at

Kannur and Kasaragod, the vehicle was intercepted and about

1091.8 gms of explosives were seized. Crime No.487 of 2019 was

consequently registered arraying the driver of the vehicle as an

accused inter alia under Section 286 of the IPC, 118(f) of the KP Act

and Section 9B(1)(b) of Explosives Act.

2.

The petitioner approached the learned Magistrate and filed

an application seeking interim custody of the explosives which were

seized. He contended that he was having a valid licence. He produced

documents to show that the licence issued to him by the Chief

Controller of Explosives on 18.3.2015 was valid till 31.3.2017 and that

prior to the expiry of the licence, i.e., on 13.2.2017, he had filed an

application seeking renewal of the licence for the period from 1.4.2017

till 31.3.2020. He urged that in view of Rule 112(4) and (5) of the

Explosives Rules, he had a deemed licence as his application for

renewal was pending consideration of the authority. The learned

Magistrate, however, rejected the application hol