Law: Customs Act, 1969

Section: 13,14,14A,32,98,13(3),179,193,194A,194A( 1),195,156(1)

Law: Customs Rules, 2001

Section: 344

JUDGMENT Muhammad Junaid Ghaffar J.:- Through instant petition, the petitioner has impugned Order-in-Original No.20 of 2011 dated 23.09.2011, whereby the Diplomatic Bonded Warehouse license issued to the petitioner, has been cancelled in addition to outright confiscation of goods lying in the warehouse, with further directions for payment of warehousing surcharge in terms of Section 98 of the Customs Act, 1969. 2. Briefly, the facts as stated are that the petitioner had been granted a license for warehousing of diplomatic goods vide License No. PWL 1/91-DIP, whereafter, a Show Cause Notice dated 25.01.2011 was issued for cancellation proceedings under Section 13(3) of the Customs Act, 1969 read with Rule 344 of the Customs Rules, 2001 and for contravention of Section 32(1) and 32(A) of the Customs Act, 1969 punishable under clause 14 and 14-A of Section 156(1) of the Customs Act 1969. The petitioner replied to the Show Cause Notice, whereafter, the impugned Order-in-Original has been passed, which has been challenged through instant petition. 3. Learned Counsel for the petitioner has contended that the impugned order is not appealable under terms of Section 194-A of the Customs Act, 1969 before the Customs Appellate Tribunal as it does not fall within any of the category of orders as provided in sub-section (1) of Section 194-A of the Customs Act and therefore having left with no other remedy, the petitioner has filed instant petition which is maintainable before this Court. On merits learned Counsel has contended that the impugned order has been passed without jurisdiction, as the Collector of Customs, at the relevant time, did not enjoy any powers of adjudication in terms of Section 179 of the Customs Act, 1969, whereas, instant proceedings were initiated by the Collector of Customs under Section 13 of the Act for cancellation of the petitioner's license, however, the Collector has taken upon himself the adjudication exercise and has also confiscated the warehoused goods and has further directed for payment of warehousing surcharge for which the Collector of Customs has no jurisdiction in the matter. So far as merits of the case are concerned, the learned…

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