: The Madras High Court Bench here has held that forest officials cannot refuse to return licensed guns even after cases booked for offences under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 had ended up being compounded on payment of fine amount.
A Division Bench of Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and V.M. Velumani passed the order while allowing a writ appeal filed by A. Pushparaj, former president of Anandapuram Panchayat in Tirunelveli district, whose gun was seized way back in October 2005. Rejecting the contention of the forest officials that firearms need not be returned even if the case had been compounded, the judges directed them to return the gun to the appellant within two weeks from the date of receipt of the court order.
“Though the offence was compounded, which according to the appellant was under coercion, the fact remains that the licence of the gun is yet to be cancelled. Therefore, it is not open to the respondents to retain the possession of the appellant’s gun,” the judges said.
The judges pointed out that the Supreme Court on October 17, 2011 had dealt with various amendments made to the Wild Life Act.
The present appeal had been preferred in 2013 against a judgement passed by a single judge of the High Court in June 2012 dismissing a writ petition filed by Mr. Pushparaj in 2006.
The court rejected the contention that firearms need not be returned even if the case had been compounded
