Arms Act, 1959
Also known as Arms Act.
Key Judgments
The Supreme Court set aside the Patna High Court's grant of anticipatory and regular bail to three men accused of a murder during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as the High Court ignored police video footage placing them at the scene and the statements of witnesses who identified them from it. Merely recording submissions without independent reasons is not a proper approach to bail; the pleas go back, with interim bail continuing (paras 7-11).
The Rajasthan High Court held that the mere existence of other criminal cases against an accused is not, by itself, a conclusive ground to deny bail; antecedents must be weighed with the other relevant factors (paras 5-7). Noting acquittals in half of 52 cases, custody of over eleven months with the prosecution evidence not yet begun, and a seven-year maximum sentence, it granted bail in an Arms Act and Explosives Act case on stringent conditions (paras 7, 10-13).
On a State appeal against sentence, the Rajasthan High Court held that Section 21 of the Juvenile Justice Act bars only death and life imprisonment without the possibility of release for a child in conflict with law, so life imprisonment with the possibility of release remains available. The Children's Court had imposed ten years' rigorous imprisonment for murder without giving any reason, so the sentence was set aside and the matter remanded for fresh sentencing (paras 6-7).
The Supreme Court set aside a Kerala High Court order revoking the bail of five accused in a 2021 political murder, granted two years earlier (paras 2, 4, 32). Distinguishing cancellation of bail from revocation of a perverse bail order (para 17), it held that individual liberty and the interests of the victim and the community "could have been better balanced" through stringent conditions (para 21), which it imposed (para 26).
The Rajasthan High Court quashed a District Magistrate's refusal of an arms licence to a renowned national shooter that rested on her father's and uncle's crimes. Only the applicant's own conduct and criminal antecedents count; family history is irrelevant, especially for a sports-quota licence (paras 23-25). Section 14(1)(b)(ii) of the Arms Act allows refusal only where it is ‘necessary’ for public peace or safety, not on surmise (paras 30-31). A regular licence was ordered within ten days (para 36).