“The Allahabad High Court, in the case of Ravi Shankar Tiwari and 4 Others vs State of UP, recently emphasized that authorities cannot issue a general order for the deposit of firearms ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. This decision was made by Justice Abdul Moin in response to the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) instructions regarding the deposit of licensed arms to maintain law and order during the polls.
According to the ECI instructions, the Chief Election Officer in Uttar Pradesh directed the establishment of a committee led by the District Magistrate to verify arms licenses and facilitate their deposit.
However, the High Court referred to its previous rulings, which stated that the State government cannot compel citizens with valid firearms licenses to deposit their firearms solely based on the occurrence of elections.”
“Even if the said committee has been formed, some cogent reasons should emerge from the order of the screening committee as to why it is essential for the fire arms to be deposited and there cannot be general order for deposit of fire arms.”
In a recent petition concerning the deposit of firearms, the Court, in its order dated March 22, acknowledged that the petitioner’s case fell within the purview of earlier directives issued by the High Court.
However, the Court expressed concern over the recurring instances of authorities compelling license holders to deposit their firearms ahead of impending elections. Despite directives issued over two decades ago against such actions, petitions continued to be filed challenging authorities’ orders mandating the deposit of firearms without providing any reasons for such directives.
“It clearly emerges that despite the Chief Secretary and the Principal Secretary, Home, Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow having been required to issue appropriate directions to all the subordinate authorities for adhering to the judgement of this Court pertaining to the issue of deposit of fire arms during the election period no heed has been paid to the same,” the Court said.
The Court emphasized that judgments handed down by the highest court of the State are legally binding on all authorities, yet they were being disregarded.
The Court expressed concern that issues that could be resolved at the local authority level were repeatedly brought before the High Court, indicating a lackadaisical approach on the part of the authorities.
Therefore, the Court issued a stern warning that if any more petitions challenging such unexplained orders are brought before it, it may deem it necessary to impose significant costs on the authorities as a deterrent.
However, the Court clarified that authorities are within their rights to order license holders to deposit firearms if valid reasons are provided.
“Needless to mention that in case the authority has valid reasons requiring the license holder to deposit his fire arm then it would always be open for the competent authority to pass a specific order in this regard being uninfluenced by any of the observations made above,” the Court said.
