Supreme Court says pellet guns cannot be banned while existing advisory permits their use

PTI, July 30, 2026, New Delhi: 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 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. Mohan 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.

The Bench took note of the submissions of senior advocate Vrinda Grover, appearing for the petitioners, and asked the Delhi government to provide the best treatment to Prashant Kumar, Sheikh Irshad Mansoori and others who suffered pellet gun injuries during the July 20 protest here.

Former Central Information Commissioner and retired IPS officer Yashovardhan Azad and the two victims had moved the court seeking a complete ban on the use of metallic pellet guns to deal with law and order situations.

The Bench issued a notice to the Centre and the Inspector General of Police, RAF, on the plea by Azad and the two victims.

At the outset, Justice Bagchi said that the prayer for a ban on the use of pellet guns for civilian crowd dispersal was "vague" without challenging the police regulations, which permit the use of such weapons.

Grover said it was not easy to find such regulations in the public domain, and urged the Bench to direct the Centre to place them on record.