Law: Customs Act, 1969

Section: 187

Law: Qanun-e-Shahadat (10 of 1984)

Section: 117,121

(a) Customs Act (IV of 1969)----S.187--Qanun-e-Shahadat (10 of 1974) Arts.117 121--Burden of proof as to lawful authority--Scope--Section 187 of the Customs Act, 1969, provides two conditions, which are as follows: (i) when a person is charged with an offence under the Customs Act, 1969, burden of proof is cast upon him to show that he had the lawful authority to commit that act; (ii) when a person is found in possession of any goods the burden of proof is cast upon him to show that he was holding such goods under some lawful authority, permission or license, etc--Clause (ii) provides for an eventuality where a person is found to be in possession of certain goods which fall under a prohibited category or which in an unlawful manner find place in the possession of custody of the accused---In such Case the burden is upon the accused to show that he falls under some exemption or exception to hold such goods-- Type of eventuality as envisaged and stated in clause (ii) essentially represents a statement of the general principle of the law of evidence contained in Art. 121 of the Qanun-e-Shahadat, 1984--This principle states that anyone claiming to be under a preferential, exempt, or excepted category must demonstrate fulfillment of the conditions to fall within that category--This obviously should not be confused with the factum of possession for which no presumption or burden of proof has been spelt out, in view whereof the possession itself has to be proved independently by the prosecution beyond all reasonable doubt--In case of clause (i) it is to be determined whether the burden of proof solely lies upon the accused to disprove allegations of mis-declaration and mis-description leveled by the customs authorities and whether the customs authorities are under no obligation to lead evidence and discharge any onus of proof--This part of S. 187 perhaps appears to be contrary to the general principle of law of evidence contained in Art. 117 of the Qanun-e-Shahadat, 1984, that whosoever alleges existence of a particular fact must prove the same--There is little doubt that a special law of particular statute can provide for a distinct regime of rules of evidence…

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