Arms license scam
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 25: Expressing serious concern over the pick and choose policy in granting prosecution sanction in the infamous arms license scam and delaying the matter on one pretext or the other, a Division Bench of High Court of J&K and Ladakh comprising Chief Justice Tashi Rabstan and Justice M A Chowdhary has reluctantly granted one month’s time to Government of India and J&K Government for doing the needful by filing the status reports indicating the steps taken for granting prosecution sanction with regard to IAS officers and others against whom CBI has sought sanction to produce challans in the designated CBI courts.
After hearing Advocate S S Ahmed with Advocates Supriya Chouhan, Rahul Raina and M Zulkarnain Chowdhary for the petitioners in the much publicized Public Interest Litigation (PIL No.9/2012) titled Sheikh Mohammed Shafi and Another Versus Union of India and Others, the DB further directed that in case needful is not done well before the next date of hearing the court would have no option but to take coercive measures.
“The CBI has concluded after investigation that the Licensing Authorities—-District Magistrates, Gun House Dealers and other middlemen had hatched a criminal conspiracy for issuance of arms licenses illegally in favour of ineligible persons by forging documents in lieu of monetary considerations, yet the competent authorities including the Ministry of Home Affairs have not accorded sanction for prosecution of IAS officers for the last many years”, the DB said.
The Division Bench further observed, “it seems that the prosecution sanction is being sanctioned by these authorities on the basis of pick and choose basis as big fishes are still roaming free and the matter is being delayed on one or the other pretext”, adding “CBI in its report has revealed that during the period between 2012 to 2016 approximately 1.53 lakh arms licenses were issued in 10 districts of Jammu Division and approximately 1.21 lakh arms licenses were issued in 12 districts of Kashmir Division”.
Senior AAG S S Nanda appearing for J&K Government produced a communication dated 20.11.2024 stating that the matter is still under examination/consultation with the Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and, thus, prayed for certain more time to do the needful. The DSGI Vishal Sharma appearing for Union of India also sought some time on the same lines.
Looking into the public interest involved in the matter, the Division Bench directed the Registry to re-notify the instant PIL on December 30, 2024.
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