Right to carry arms not a fundamental right: Allahabad High Court on lawyers carrying guns in courts

The Allahabad High Court recently said that allowing lawyers or litigants to carry firearms within court premises would pose a threat to public safety [Amandeep Singh v State]..Justice Pankaj Bhatia noted that despite a specific bar in Rule 614-A of the General Rules (Civil) on carrying of arms in court premises and earlier directions by the High Court, guns were being carried by lawyers."Permitting the lawyers or any litigant other than the member of the armed forces on duty to carry arms would be clearly a threat to public peace or public safety in the Court premises, which not only has an adverse affect on the litigants frequenting the District Courts but also has the affect of adversely affecting the credibility of the administration of justice, which is one of the basic features of the Constitution of India," the Court observed..It also held that carrying firearms was not a fundamental right under the Constitution."...arms license is merely a privilege granted by the State and is not a Right and right to carry arms is certainly not a fundamental right much less a right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.".The Court further issued a directive instructing all district judges and judicial officers in Uttar Pradesh to file cases under the Arms Act against litigants and lawyers found carrying arms within court premises. Additionally, the Court mandated them to promptly approach the district magistrate/licensing authority to initiate the cancellation of such arms licenses..Moreover, it said that any person found carrying ‘arms’ in the entire court premises including common areas, court rooms, lawyers’ chambers, bar associations, canteens and other public areas, would be deemed to be constituting breach of ‘public peace’ or ‘public safety’ for the purpose of Section 17(3)(b) of the Arms Act..The Court was hearing the case of a young lawyer enrolled in 2018 who was charged under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) along with Section 30 of the Arms Act for carrying arms in the court premises. As a result, the licensing authority revoked the petitioner's arms license..In his appeal, the petitioner contended that he was unaware of the prohibition against carrying an armed license in court premises and assured the Court that he would not repeat the same in the future.Additionally, he argued that he was unfairly singled out for the initiation of proceedings to cancel his arms license..While dismissing the plea, the Court directed,"The Registrar General/Senior Registrar of this Court is directed to communicate this order to all concerned Judicial Officers in the State as well as to Secretary, Home, State of U.P. for compliance as well as to Bar Council of India and Bar Council of the State to for taking steps for sensitizing lawyers for not carrying Arms in the Court Premises."Advocates Kuldeep Kaur, Ambrish Kumar Dwivedi and Ravi Dwivedi appeared for petitioner..[Read Order]