Arms Act, 1959 – ss. 25(1)(a), 25(1AA) r/w s. 35 – Prohibition of acquisition or possession, or of manufacture or sale, or prohibited arms or prohibited ammunition – On facts, cartridges found in the car driven by accused A-1 in a drunken state – A2 was the owner of the car – Disclosure made by A1 about some more arms hidden in a bungalow of which A4 was shown as the occupier in the records – Weapons and live cartridges found inside the cellar of that house – A3 had stored the weapons and later on gave to A1 from the cellar – Conviction of A2 and A4 for commission of offence u/ss. 25(1)(a), 25(1AA) r/w s. 35 by the courts below – Sustainability of – Held: Not sustainable – As regards A2, it is necessary to prove that the accused was in conscious possession at some point in time before the discovery and retained control of the objects at the time of the recovery – Accused was neither in the car when it was apprehended nor anywhere near the car – A-2 was arrested only because he was found to be the registered owner – It is not even the prosecution’s case nor the courts below have rendered a finding that A-2 was in constructive possession of the live cartridges recovered from the car – Conviction of A2 u/s. 25(1AA) wholly unwarranted – As regards, A4 he was not in possession or occupation of the house for almost three months as he was in detention – There is no evidence that the house was locked from the outside – Window of the room, which led to the cellar, was said to be locked from inside and an iron gate that had a lock on the outside had to be broken – Prosecution could not establish intention and consciousness of the A4 of the arms and ammunition found in A4’s house – Thus, A4 was not in constructive possession of the firearms and conviction wholly unwarranted.
Gunwantlal vs. The State of Madhya Pradesh (1972) 2 SCC 194 : [1973] 1 SCR 508 – referred to.
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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