KARACHI: A customs appellate bench of High Court of Sindh on Friday dismissed two constitution petitions filed by Messrs S.A Enterprises against Pakistan Customs for holding their consignments over a classification dispute.
As petition CP-D 6149 was taken up by a customs bench of High Court of Sindh comprising Justice Muhammad Junaid Ghaffar and Justice Agha Faisal, Khalid Rajpar, counsel for Pakistan Customs informed the bench that the petitioner has filed CP-D 4912 and 4913 of 2020 with identical issues.
The prayers of the petitioner include processing of GDs, provisional release of the imported Computer Panels by securing disputed amount of duty and taxes. The petitioner further sought declaration that imported items are classifiable under HS Code PCT Heading 8528. 5200 and to hold that Respondent No 4 has no jurisdiction to put hold on the consignment which has been examined and assessed.
These petitions were disposed of on 10-11-2020 with the direction for initiation of Adjudication Proceedings and such order was also placed before the court by the custom side.
The counsel for the Petitioner when confronted defending filing of new petition said that now Show Cause Notice has been issued.
The bench took exception to filing of the new petition and said all these grounds were available to the petitioner when previous petitions were filed. The bench also noted that Adjudicating authority was also directed to dispose of the matter expeditiously.
At the most for expeditious conclusion of the adjudication proceedings, an application could have been made in the same petition but fresh petitions have been filed resulting in sheer wastage of court time, the bench said in the order dismissing the petitions as misconceived and imposing a fine of rupees 3000 upon each petitioner to be deposited in the account of SHC Clinic.