The Supreme Court on Thursday said that pellet guns
cannot be banned as long as the existing advisory permits their use for crowd
control in exceptional circumstances by security agencies, while making it
clear that allegations of specific misuse can be examined on a case-by-case
basis.
The
top court took note of a plea on the use of metallic pellet guns during the
recent students' protests against the Neet paper leak in Delhi and asked the
Centre to preserve the ammunition log of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) deployed
at the Jantar Mantar.
Observing
that police, as per the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD)
advisory, are empowered to use pellet guns in exceptional situations, a bench
comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana
termed "vague" the prayer in the plea seeking a complete ban on such
usage.
“Prayers are not to use pellet guns. In exceptional
cases, police regulations permit the use of pellet guns. If you are interested
in phasing out pellet guns, you will have to challenge that very provision as
ultra vires to Article 21 (right to life),” Justice Bagchi said.