The Supreme Court of India has issued a directive regarding the use of pellet guns, stating that their deployment by security forces remains legally permissible under current regulations. The court indicated that these weapons will continue to be a valid tool for law enforcement until such time as the specific rules governing their use are formally struck down as unconstitutional.

This ruling serves as a procedural clarification in ongoing litigation concerning the use of non-lethal or less-lethal weaponry in crowd control scenarios. While critics of the weapons have long argued that pellet guns cause excessive injury and violate human rights, the court has declined to issue an immediate blanket ban. Instead, the judiciary has signaled that the legality of the weapons is tied directly to the validity of the administrative rules that authorize them. Consequently, security agencies are permitted to continue utilizing pellet guns in accordance with existing guidelines until a final judicial determination is made on the constitutionality of those specific regulations. The court's position emphasizes that until the legal framework is dismantled, the operational use of these devices does not constitute a violation of the law.