Actress Soha Ali Khan’s arms license which was used by her father Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi to shoot a Black Buck using her rifle was cancelled by a court at Gurgaon.

Gurgaon District Magistrate Rakesh Gupta cancelled the licence issued to Soha Ali Khan in November 1996 on the ground that she had not attained the mandatory age of 21 years when Soha applied for the license.

Soha Ali Khan had got a gun issued in her name when she was underage and had applied for its renewal later even when her father had used her gun to kill a black buck.

Earlier, when she was served a show cause notice that expired on April 7th, Soha Ali Khan had sought an opportunity for personal hearing. “We have received a reply from Soha Sultan (as was her name mentioned in the gun license) against the show-cause notice. She has sought an opportunity for personal hearing on the issue on which I would decide on Wednesday. She was given 15 days to respond to the notice,” the DM said at that time.

According to the district officials, Soha Ali Khan was only 18 years old when she sought the license. Under the Arms Act, a person has to be 21 years to get a weapon license.

They maintained that when she got her license renewed in 2005, Soha Ali Khan did not make any reference to the weapon being allegedly used by her father, Pataudi to hunt a blackbuck in adjoining Jhajjar district.

The District Magistrate, Gurgaon, Rakesh Gupta, in his order, said that it was the ”moral duty” on the part of Soha to have disclosed in whose possession the rifle was”.

The district magistrate told reporters in Gurgaon that he had informed the Jhajjar district police about his decision with instructions that the weapon, which has been in their possession since it was seized from the Pataudi Household, “is not to be released to Ms Khan”.

Curiously though, Mr Gupta has stopped short of imposing further penalties on the actress because the original file pertaining to her gun license had gone missing.