Indiscriminate issuance of arms licenses

16/07/2018

Acting tough on indiscriminate issuance of arms licenses from eight districts of Jammu and Kashmir, which was pointed out by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and National Database for Arms Licenses (NDAL), the Government ordered an inquiry into the scam by the State Vigilance Organization, ban on issuance of individual arms licenses by all District Magistrates of the State and steps to revoke individual licenses by the DMs (except security personnel), which don’t meet the laid down conditions. The Home Department of the Jammu and Kashmir Government has issued a detailed order to this effect. It identified eight districts responsible for issuing indiscriminate arms licenses as Kishtwar, Rajouri, Ramban, Reasi and Udhampur in Jammu region; Kupwara and Ganderbal in Kashmir and Leh in Ladakh region. The Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, has reported indiscriminate issuance of arms licenses in Jammu and Kashmir with specific reference to certain districts. The NDAL portal has also prima facie revealed indiscriminate issuance of individual arms licenses in some districts of the State from 1.1.2017 to 23.2.2018. It ordered that no fresh individual arms license will be issued by the District Magistrates of Jammu and Kashmir under Section 14 (1) (b) (ii) of the Arms Act 1959 till further orders. The District Magistrates of the State will take urgent steps to revoke all such individual arms licenses issued to various persons excluding the personnel of State Police, Army and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), which don’t meet all the conditions prescribed in Rule 11 and Rule 12 of the Arms Rules, 2016.
In addition to handing over the case to the State Vigilance Organization (SVO), the Government has also ordered that the Divisional Commissioners of Jammu/Kashmir will verify all cases of individual new arms licenses issued during the period from 1.1.2017 to 23.2.2018 of all eight districts in terms of the extant legal provisions and furnish a detailed report to the Home Department within a period of one month. The Government has also ordered that all District Magistrates will ensure strict compliance with the provisions contained in Arms Rules 2016 at the stage of renewal of an arms license. The Government order observed that the issues related to grant of individual arms licenses in Jammu and Kashmir has an implication on security of the public peace/public safety. It also referred to an enquiry already ordered into issuance of arms licenses in the State vide Government Order No. 1307-Home of 2017 dated 20.4.2017 through KB Aggarwal, Finance Commissioner, Jammu and Kashmir Government. This inquiry was ordered following inputs received from CID of Jammu and Kashmir Police with regard to issuance of very large number of individual arms licenses in certain districts of the State.

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