KARACHI: An order passed by Custom Appellate Tribunal, Karachi in respect of 56590 kilograms of Cloth including 40,000 Kgs Gents Suiting, Shirting fabric recovered from New Lucknow and Al-Jadeed Lucknow Cloth Market was suspended by a custom appellate bench of High Court of Sindh.
The order came in a Special Customs Reference Application filed by the Directorate of Customs Intelligence & Investigations, Karachi through Khalid Mehmood Rajper Advocate.
The counsel for customs referred to the various questions of law arising out of the impugned judgment of the tribunal including the main issue that appellants/ owners SKF Collection failed to appear before the adjudicating authority despite giving them ample opportunities to appear and claim the confiscated goods. As per sezing authority, the confiscated goods are valued at PKR 301.480.661 involving duty and taxes of Rupees 182,870,104
The counsel also pointed out that appellant came in picture by filing appeal and during proceedings filed irrelevant documents in relation to confiscated goods and therefore has no locus stand to challenge the Order in Appeal.
The impugned cloth was recovered during a joint raid of Customs, Police, Rangers on 01.06.2024 during which the raiding team faced resistance from alleged smugglers.
The SHC after a brief hearing issued notice of the questions of the law to the respondents while suspending the order of the tribunal. The next date of hearing will be fixed by the office of the court.