PATNA, May 15 -- Trouble has mounted for senior IAS officer Robert L. Chongthu, principal secretary to the Bihar Governor for a long time, as the Patna High Court has dismissed his quashing petition for relief in an Arms Act case involving distribution of weapon licenses without verification to the undeserving. "As this case was lodged in 2003 for which cognizance was taken in the year 2022, whereafter almost no progress in the trial was made in the last more than two years, the trial court is directed to conclude the trial expeditiously, preferably within six months of this order after taking this matter on board, on day-to-day basis," said the bench of Justice Chandra Shekhar Jha. The order, passed on Friday, was uploaded on Tuesday. Dismissing Chongthu's quashing petition "as being devoid of any merit", the court observed that "it does not find any illegality in the order taking cognizance dated June 1, 2022, passed by learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Saharsa in connection with a 2005 case against petitioner for the offences under Sections 109, 419, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC and Section 30 of the Arms Act and, therefore, the same does not require interference by this Court". The case pertains to distribution of arms licenses without police verification. Some of the licensees were found to be not physically capable of carrying arms and had allegedly created forged documents to procure arms licenses. Some of the licensees were also found to have given wrong addresses. The present petition was filed by the petitioner for quashing of sanction order dated 01.06.2022 passed by Chief Judicial Magistrate, Saharsa in connection with 2005 case involving issue of arms licence to seven persons with wrong address without verification in 2003-04 during the petitioners' term as the DM of Saharsa and the supplementary chargesheet filed in 2020. Later, The District Arms Magistrate stated in his statement recorded in the case diary that several irregularities were committed earlier in the grant of arms licenses and the succeeding District Magistrate had cancelled many of the arm's licenses on finding the irregularities. The court observed that "having authority under law does not mean to use it in an arbitrary and unjustified manner, as lawful authority demands compliance of legal procedure, but the manner in which arm licenses were issued by petitioner, is prima facie sufficient to raise eyebrows". The police had submitted chargesheet against the petitioner through its supplementary chargesheet on August 31, 2020 for the offences punishable under Sections 109, 419, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC and Section 30 of the Arms Act. "The submission of the petitioner that he was authorized under the rule to grant license even without obtaining a police verification report and other materials is such a version of defence, which cannot be looked into at this stage, because it is an established principle of law that materials available on record cannot be looked in its probative terms at this stage," the bench observed. The Government of Bihar had granted sanction for prosecution required under Section 197 of the CrPC against the petitioner and the February 25, 2016 order of the General Administration Department had also directed the petitioner to remain careful in future, but the court said that the "note of caution" cannot be equated as to accept the argument that petitioner was exonerated form departmental proceedings. Chongthu is the third Raj Bhawan official to be indicted by the Patna HC. A couple of months ago, the court had made scathing observations against Officer on Special Duty (Judicial) and Officer on Special Duty (University) ar the Governor's secretariat and said that they are "unfit for their respective positions and should be sent for appropriate training"....