KARACHI: A divisional bench of High Court of Sindh (SHC) comprising Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan on Thursday directed Pakistan Customs to place an order under which they have suspended the User ID and License of a petitioner Clearing Agent.
The bench earlier heard a constitution petition filed by Docks Private Limited who challenged the blocking of the User ID as well as License. Raja Babar Hamid advocate representing the petitioner submitted that no intimation or show cause was issued to the petitioner. The User ID of the petitioner was blocked based on a circular. The petitioner was not informed of allegations against him, he was not named in FIR as accused, and he submitted replying to the contention of Kashif nazir advocate that connivance of accused/petitioner in clearing of goods fraudulently have been established.
The bench asked that whether the Customs initiated any action against him. The show cause required of the petitioner to reply to the allegations and any action without considering the reply could not be approved, the bench observed. Either you have to mention that since he has contravened such and such section of the Customs Act, his license is suspended and User ID is blocked.
Ilyas Ahsan, law officer of the Pakistan Customs intervened and said that issue of suspension of license and blocking of User ID was being mixed during arguments.
He said that petitioner came to the court for de-blocking of his User ID and NTN etc so that he can operate his business. He submitted that Collector Custom has the powers to block the User ID if any misuse is reported to him and this action can be taken without any show cause.
The counsel for petitioner submitted that action by the respondents was in excess of jurisdiction as advance notice was not given to him and there is nothing on record to show that he caused loss of revenue by alleged connivance with the importer He also pointed out that Appraisement East has not filed comments in the petition.
The bench later adjourned further proceedings till March 02 seeking comments from Collector Custom, Appraisement East. The court on the request of the counsel for petitioner also restrained the custom authorities from taking any action against the petitioner in respect of User ID.