KARACHI: A constitutional bench of High Court of Sindh dismissed 28 identical petitions challenging vires of an amendment in Customs Act 1969 whereby section 156 was amended and the quantum of fine/penalty prescribed for release of certain sanctioned goods was enhanced.
The petitions pertain to auto parts. Navin Merchant, Umer Ilyas Khan, Amjad Hayat and Shehryar Ahmed appeared for the petitioners while Khalid Mehmood Rajpar, Sardar Zafar Hussain, Agha Shahid Majeed Khan, Alizeh Bashir Assistant Attorney General represented the respondents.
The bench in its order said that it appears that petitioner have concealed that the adjudication has already been undertaken after issuance of show cause notices and orders in original etc, however enforcement has been stayed in the garb of the instant petitions.
When confronted counsel for the petitioners confirmed that adjudication proceedings have been completed.
The bench expressing displeasure dismissed all the 28 petitions imposing a cost of rupees 100,000 upon each petitioner to be deposited within a week time failing which the bench ordered recovery as “ARREARS OF LAND REVENUE”.
Text of order follows: