Bill to provide for life imprisonment for violating Arms Act

The Arms (Amendment) Bill, 2011, was tabled in the wake of several litigations following which the Supreme Court had held that the 1959 Act, which only provided death penalty for its violations, was "harsh, oppressive and unjust", according to the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the bill.

In view of this, the government proposed to amend a sub-section of Section 27 of the Act to provide that whoever used prohibited arms or ammunition or contravened any provision of the law which results in the death of any other person "shall be punishable with death or imprisonment for life and shall also be liable to fine instead of mandatory sentence of death only," the statement said.

The bill was tabled in the House by Minister of State for Home Mullapally Ramachandran.

The Supreme Court had held that it was a fundamental right of every person that he or she should not be subjected to greater penalty than what the law prescribed, the statement said, adding that the bill sought to achieve this objective.