KARACHI: Pakistan Customs has challenged the dismissal of dozens of Special Custom Reference Applications (SCRAs) by a custom appellate bench of High Court of Sindh. A Civil Petition for Leave to Appeal (CPLA) has been filed.
The high court dismissed these SCRA being time barred. As the SCRAs came up for hearing, Aqeel Ahmed Khan advocate representing the respondent importers including SSJ Brothers, Karachi questioned the maintainability of the SCRAs. He submitted that as per marginal note on order sheet, the receipt of order on 13-9-2019 is acknowledged. He pointed out that instant references were filed on 02-1-2020 while time requisite for filing these SCRAs is 90 days in terms of section 196 of the Customs Act 1969.
The court with the assistance of both sides find that these are barred by 21 days. The bench was also surprised to find that no application for condoning the delay was filed by the customs department. The bench then dismissed the same being time barred.
As per details there are some FIRs also related to these SCRA’s which would die if CPLA fails.