Ex-DM Saharanpur fined for suspension of arms licences

The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday imposed a cost of Rs 35,000 on the then Saharanpur DM for arbitrarily suspending arms licences of several persons belonging to a particular community after the last year’s communal riots.
Passing the above order on seven writ petitions filed by Rakesh, Brahma Singh and five others, Justice Sudhir Agarwal dismissed all the petitions after the state counsel informed that the aforesaid orders of suspending the arms licences have been withdrawn by the present Saharanpur DM.But the court imposed a cost of Rs 5,000 each on all the seven writ petitions.
Communal riots had taken place in Rankhandi village of Saharanpur district on September 9, 2013, and the then Saharanpur DM Ajay Kumar Singh passed orders on September 12 suspending the arms licences of many persons who filed the present writ petitions challenging his order.
In all the seven writ petitions, the petitioners had alleged that arms licences of persons belonging to a particular community were suspended although according to them they had no involvement in the communal riots.
They termed the order of suspension as arbitrarily and requested the court to set it aside.
The court at one stage had directed the then Saharanpur DM to file reply with regard to the allegations made in the writ petitions.
At another stage, present Saharanpur DM Indraveer Singh Yadav filed affidavit informing the court that as many as 72 arms linceces were suspended by the then DM following communal riots in Saharanpur district in September 2013. However, he informed that after hearing the aggrieved parties, he withdrew all the orders of suspension of arms licences on August 11, 2014.
Taking the statement of the DM on record, the court dismissed all the writ petitions but imposed a cost of Rs 35,000 on the then Saharanpur DM for his action.