CHATRAPAL Vs. COLLECTOR FATEHPUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Whether the appeal under S.18 of the Arms Act, 1959, (for short the Act) read with Arms Rules, 1%2, (for short the Rules), can be filed within thirty days from the date of order or from the date of service of the order on the person against whom the impugned order revoking the licence has been passed, and what is the meaning to be assigned to the expression 'within thirty days from the date of issue of the order', are the short questions that fall for determination in the present petition filed by the petitioner under Art.226 of the Constitution of India. The petitioner has prayed for a writ of certiorari quashing the order dated 13-10-86 passed by the District Magistrate dismissing the appeal as time barred and the order dated 4-12-84 revoking the licence.

(2.) The case of the petitioner is that he was a peaceful citizen and on the basis of some false report lodged against him at Police Station Thariyaon, Fatehpur, and without any information to the petitioner or without issuing any notice as to why not the licence No. 359 of his S.B.B.L. Gun No. 4962-79 may be suspended or revoked, his licence was cancelled by the impugned order dated 4-12-84. Against that order the petitioner preferred an appeal which was dismissed as time barred. It is against these orders that present petition has been filed.

(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioner urged that the expression within thirty days from the date of issue of the order' was very comprehensive and particularly, the issue of order means that the certified copy of the impugned order passed by Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Fatehpur must have been served on the petitioner and from the date of service 30 (thirty) days must have been counted for filing the appeal. Reliance was placed on a Division Bench decision of this Court in Udaibir Singh v. District Magistrate, Farrukhabad, 1981 All WC 237.