KARACHI: A customs appellate bench of High Court of Sindh comprising Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan and Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry summoned Registrar of Special Custom Appellate Tribunal (SCA) to appear before court tomorrow.e 25-2-2022 along with Record & Papers of the case.
The bench was seized with the issue that whether the SCAT could issue contempt of court notice and show cause to alleged contemnors. It was raised by Fayyaz Rasool Mekan and other in a Constitution Petition 616 of 2022.
As per details SCAT decided an appeal in favor of importer and department was to implement the order in respect of a classification dispute. During hearing before the SHC, the bench was informed that Registrar of the SCAT has issued the notice. The perusal showed that notice does not contain any thing that it was being issued on the orders of the Member of the Tribunal.
The bench observed that notice was apparently issued by the Registrar. The bench in absence of documents summoned R & P of the case to determine that whether the Member of the Tribunal ordered issuance of Show Cause Notice and such directions were given to the Registrar or not or whether Registrar acted on his own.
The bench has already stopped the action by SCAT after hearing Sarfraz Metlo Advocate, counsel for the Pakistan Customs. Advocate Metlo maintains that only High Court and Supreme Court have the power to issue notice on charge of contempt and SCAT do not have such powers or jurisdiction.