Law: Customs Act, 1969

Section: 159

Customs Act (IV of 1969)--Ss. 159(I), 168, 187 & 196---Reference to High Court---Vehicle registered with Motor Vehicle Registration Authority before 14 years---Seizure of such vehicle alleged to be smuggled one on the ground that out of the documents produced by its owner (i.e. original Registration Book, copy of Bill of Entry, copies of documents regarding clearance of such vehicle from Port and receipt showing payment of duty and taxes along with Bill of Lading), copy of Bill of Entry did not pertain to said vehicle---Order-in-original passed by Adjudication Authority upheld by Appellate Authority and the Tribunal---Validity Registration Authority had duly verified genuineness of registration and issuance of registration book in respect of such vehicle to its owner---Authority itself had failed to ascertain as to whether import documents produced by owner were fake or irrelevant---Authority had not verified as to whether registration of such vehicle by Registration Authority was in accordance with law or not---Tribunal in earlier round of litigation had opined on basis of same facts and record that owner had successfully discharged burden of proof by producing relevant import documents, but Authority had failed to prove such vehicle to be smuggled one---Tribunal while passing impugned order had discarded such documents produced by owner and based its findings upon surmises and conjectures---Authority had failed to discharge burden of proof, which shifted thereon in terms of S.187, Customs Act, 1969 on production of such documents by owner---High Court accepted Reference application in circumstances. Kamran Industries v. Collector of Customs PLD 1996 Kar. 68 rel. JUDGMENT AQEEL AHMED ABBASI, J.---Through instant reference application the applicant has impugned the order dated 6-1-2010 passed by the Customs, Excise and Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal, Bench-I, Karachi in Custom Appeal (New) No.K-154 of 2009, (Old No.K-472 of 2006), whereby the appeal filed by the applicant was dismissed by holding that the applicant has failed to discharge his initial burden of proof to establish that the impugned vehicle was legally imported and following questions of law…

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/digixyei/sldsystempk.com/view/master-layout/view_case.php on line 492