From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday registered a suo moto case on unlicensed firearms, saying “trend is very disturbing.”
While the US constitution allows all citizens to carry guns, but that is not the case in India, the court made it clear. It said there is no fundamental right to bear arms in India.
A bench of Justices K.M. Joseph and B.V. Nagarathna registered this case while hearing the bail plea of a murder accused from Uttar Pradesh.
“According to prosecution, an unlicensed firearm was used and offences under Sec 302 along with 307 of the Indian Penal Code was registered. We have come across several cases where this phenomenon of unlicensed arms and this trend is very disturbing,” the bench said.
“Unlike the US constitution where the right to bear arms is a fundamental right, under the wisdom of our founding fathers, no such right has been conferred on anybody under the Constitution….It is the greatest significance to preserve life of all that resort must be made to stop unlicensed fire arms in particular.”
The bench also asked the state of Uttar Pradesh to place on the record how many cases had been registered on the possession and use of unlicensed firearms. The government was given four weeks to file this affidavit.
