KARACHI: An appellate bench of High Court of Sindh (SHC) comprising Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi and Justice Abdul Malik Gaddi on Wednesday set aside destruction notice issued to FAS Private Ltd which imported a consignment of watches.
According to details, the consignment in dispute was released by the clearance collectorate but the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) directorate of Pakistan Customs seized the same on ground that watches imported were brought in violating the rights of the brands.
The IPR later issued a notice that the watches will be destroyed on a particular date. The importer/petitioner filed the instant petition through Franklin Law Associates maintaining that the Collector of Appeals passed an order in original in favour of the petitioner after which consignment should have been released. The petitioners further maintained that since Oct 2017 till June 2018 many consignments of identical nature have been released and now refusing the release of the goods of petitioner when no complanint was received by the IPRDirectorate, the seizure and destruction notice was violative of SRO 170.
The customs appellate authority in its order held that IPR directorate traversed beyond its lawful jurisdiction by initiating action. The action by IPR directorate was declared to be arbitrary and suffering from legal infirmity which is then set aside
The bench today after detailed hearing while disposing of the petition set aside the destruction notice.