JAMMU: The Home Department of the J&K Government rejected the application for an Arms and Ammunition Dealers Licence on Tuesday after concluding that it lacked merit and should not have been granted to Sanjeev Singh and Aditya Bhargav. According to a related order, the Home Department had received numerous requests for the issuance of new Sale and Keep Licences from the relevant District Magistrates prior to the publication of the Arms Rules, 2016, in this respect.The document continued, “These proposals were examined in accordance with the Arms Rules, 1962, which were in effect at the time, and it was decided that the decision on granting any new Sale and Keep Licence shall be taken only after analysing the number of existing/functional shops in the District and the number of fresh cases, in which applicants have applied for grant of Sale and Keep/Repair licence as would be obtained from the District Magistrates. Sanjeev Singh and Aditya Bhargav filed a writ petition in the High Court while the matter was being looked into by the Home Department, and that petition was dismissed on November 17, 2016, with instructions to the respondents Sanjeev Singh and Aditya Bhargav to give the matter consideration in accordance with the rules. The ruling further said that the petitioners misrepresented the facts before the High Court by failing to bring the altered legal situation regarding the issuing of the arms licence to the attention of the Court’s attention. In the end, Sanjeev Singh and Aditya Bhargav’s application for an arms and ammunition dealers licence was denied by the Home Department.
