KARACHI: An appellate bench of High Court of Sindh (SHC) comprising Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi and Justice Abdul Maalik Gaddi on Tuesday set aside an order of the Special Customs Appellate Tribunal in a case of smuggled Mazda mini truck.
Abdul Ghaffar, owner of the vehicle moved the court through his counsel Akram Shahbaz impugning the judgment by the Customs Appellate Tribunal in customs appeal K 636.2014. The appeal was dismissed on the basis of non compliance of clause (iii) of sub section 3 of Rule 5 of Customs, Excise and Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal (Procedure) Rules 2006.
The counsel for applicant submitted that appeal by the applicant/appellant was dismissed as it was not accompanied by the certified copy of the Order in Original along-with the memo of the appeal.
The bench perusing the record noted that the Registrar of the tribunal raised no objection while accepting the appeal. When the appeal was filed in time and was accompanied by all relevant documents except the certified copy of the Order in Original, it cannot be dismissed for a technical error.
The bench with the above observation set aside the impugned judgment restored the appeal remanding back the same with the direction to the Tribunal to decide it on “merit” within 2 months.