Law:

Section:

Customs Act (IV of 1969)--- ----Ss.3, 156(1)(8)(89), 157, 171 & 196---Appeal/Reference to High Court---Section 3 of Customs Act, 1969, had categorized the Collector of Customs and Deputy Collector of Customs, both as "officers of Customs"---Nothing was on record to conclude that memo. of appeal preferred before the Tribunal was not signed by -the Collector of Customs or Deputy Collector of Customs as shown in the title of memo of appeal and index annexed with the memo of appeal---Verification of memo. of appeal made by the Inspector of Customs, who, according to the counsel, was not a `Customs Officer', could, at best, be a procedural lapse, which would not vitiate the whole proceedings before the Tribunal on that count alone---Findings recorded by the Tribunal being findings of facts based on the evidence available before the Tribunal, same could not qualify as the questions of law within the ambit of S.196 of the Customs Act, 1969. ORDER ANWAR ZAHEER JAMALI, J.---This Customs Reference Application under section 196 of the Customs Act, 1969, proposes following questions for the opinion of this Court:-- "(1) Whether the learned Appellate Tribunal erred in holding that the Appeal- Tiled under section 194-A before the learned Appellate Tribunal by the Deputy Collector (Law) without any authorization by the Collector of Customs is maintainable? (2) Whether in the facts and circumstances of the case the learned Appellate Tribunal erred in declaring the goods as smuggled goods'? (3) Whether the charge of .smuggling without evidence for the subject goods freely available in the open market is sustainable under the Customs Act, 1969? (4) Whether in the circumstances of the case, the learned Appellate Tribunal has not taken into consideration the factual and legal grounds pleaded in the memo. of Appeal`?" 2. Briefly stated, the relevant facts of the case are that on 24-10-2004, on an information received by the Assistant Collector, Customs, Sales, Tax and Federal Excise, Sukkur that foreign origin, clothes and betel-nuts were being smuggled from Quetta to Interior of Sindh through Mazda Truck bearing Registration No. TKB-.762, the said truck was unsuccessfully…

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