KKSSR seeks renewal of weapon licences

The Madras High Court Bench here on Tuesday directed Virudhunagar Collector and District Revenue Officer to dispose of three different applications made by former Minister K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) seeking renewal of licences granted to him to possess a revolver, a pistol and a rifle.

Passing identical orders on three writ petitions filed by the former Minister, Justice M. Venugopal ordered that the two officials should consider the renewal applications in accordance with the provisions of the Arms Act 1959 and pass a “reasoned and unbiased” order within six weeks since the applications had been pending with them for long without any progress.

In his affidavit, Mr. Ramachandran said that his political opponents had splashed acid on his face in 1988 with an intention to kill him.

Since then, there had been threat to his life and therefore he obtained licences to possess a revolver, a pistol and a rifle and continued to renew them periodically without any hitch until his revolver licence expired on December 31, 2011.

It was followed by the expiry of his rifle as well as pistol licences in December 2012 and December 2013 respectively. Stating that he had made applications for renewal two months before the expiry of each of the three licences, he alleged that the officials slept over the applications without passing any orders possibly due to a murder case pending against him since 2007.

Claiming that the case was foisted owing to political motive, he contended that the case could not be cited as a reason to deny renewal of arms licences issued to him in view of threat perception. On the other hand, a Government counsel said that the writ petitioner was guilty of illegal possession of arms since he had been holding them even after expiry of the licence period without depositing them in an armoury.

However, the judge rejected the argument by stating that it was up to the officials concerned to take necessary action against the petitioner for possession of weapons beyond the licence period.