The Supreme Court has taken a suo motu cognizance of the possession and the use of unlicensed firearms in Uttar Pradesh.
It was while a Bench of Justice KM Joseph and Justice BV Nagarathna While were hearing a bail plea by a 73-year-old man who is accused of murdering a victim by firing a gun,that they took note of the misuse of unlicensed firearms.
The State of Uttar Pradesh has been directed by the Court for filing an affidavit on the number of cases that have been registered for the possession and use of unlicensed firearms.
The court has asked for the State’s stand on the same, along with the steps that have been taken to tackle this issue.
The government has been asked to submit their reply within four weeks
The Allahabad High Court had denied petitioner the bail in a case where he and other co-accused had allegedly engaged in indiscriminate firing on the complainant and seven others.
As per the prosecution, the reason was a previous enmity between the parties.
The petitioner in his plea has argued that the Allahabad High Court did not consider the report by the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) of bullet not matching the gun recovered.
The Co-accused has already been granted regular bail, which has made the matter complicated.
The petitioner has submitted that he had been in custody for more than 5 years.
The petitioner has argued that the High Court had failed to consider that the health of the petitioner was deteriorating with advancing age. Thus, his further incarceration was clearly violative of his basic human rights guaranteed by Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 21 of the Constitution.