Delhi Police to issue all-India arms licences
The order is meant for sportspersons who frequently need to travel across the country for various sporting events
Following a push by lieutenant governor (LG) VK Saxena to rationalise and ease the licencing process, Delhi Police will now issue fresh licences to renowned shooting sportspersons that will have validity not only in the Capital but pan-India, as they frequently need to travel across the country for various sporting events. Also, their cartridge quota has been significantly increased from 20 to 10,000 annually, with the one-time cartridge procurement going up from 10 at present to 1,000, officials aware of the development said on Sunday.
A senior official from the LG secretariat, who did not want to be named, said that the decision will prove to be a major reform in granting of arms licences, which was often mired in complaints of favouritism, corruption and arbitrariness. “Apart from helping applicants at large, the move will specifically benefit the country’s shooting sportspersons. Besides, speedy disposal of pending applications, it will also be ensured that fresh applications are processed in a time-bound manner through an online portal, which will be modified specifically for this purpose,” said the official.
The LG has also directed to rationalise the renewal of arms licences. In the existing system, the online portal does not prescribe any timeline for the procedures. Saxena has asked Delhi Police to make all services, including issuance of fresh licences, renewal, area validity, registration and sale of arms and cartridges, time-bound.
“The LG has also asked the police to expedite the disposal of all nearly 6,000 pending applications by the year-end. Similarly, all documents required for fresh licences as well as renewal are being reviewed, and those found unnecessary will be removed subsequently,” the officer further said.
A senior officer of the licencing department, who did not want to be named, said that the LG has also directed to make the modified arms licencing portal operational by March-end. “Delhi Police has already started granting provisional renewal of arms licences from January 15, despite the pendency of local police report (LPR), after verifying the applicants’ criminal record (if any) from Inter-operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) and State Crime Record Bureau (SCRB),” he added.
He, however, said that Delhi Police may revoke or cancel the renewal of licence in case it receives a negative police report in due course. “The modified portal will provide the applicants the liberty to schedule the date and time of their interview online as per their convenience and preferably via video conference or video call, cutting possibilities of human interface that often lead to harassment and corruption. The LG has also directed to allow the renewal of arms licences on case-to-case basis, in case the applicants are involved in minor cases that do not involve use of any weapon, bodily offence or moral turpitude,” he said.
The officer also said that for registration of arms in Delhi that have been issued licences in other states, prior LPR and genuineness will not be required. “Instead, the registration in such cases will be done in Delhi on the basis of report from National Database of Arms Licences–Arms Licence Issuance System (NDAL-ALIS),” he added.
To be sure, most of the states have yet not uploaded the data of arms’ licences on NDAL-ALIS.
Former Delhi Police joint commissioner (licencing) OP Mishra said that powers have been delegated to the state government for allowing all-India validity of arms licences at their level. “It has been decided that the state governments may allow area validity up to a maximum of three adjoining states and also to consider all-India validity requests at state-level for sitting Union ministers, MPs, personnel of military and paramilitary, officers of all-India services and officers with liability to serve anywhere in India, besides renowned sportspersons,” he said.
He added that pan-India validity may be allowed for three years, after which the state governments shall reconsider it based on the need. “Request from these categories of applicants may be approved at the level of secretary (home) of the state concerned. In the cases of applicants not covered by the above categories, the state government concerned shall seek prior concurrence of home ministry with full justification in deserving cases,” he added.