KARACHI: A customs appellate bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) suspended the order of the Customs Appellate Tribunal in smuggled laptop case and issued notices to the respondents while hearing a Special Custom Reference Application (SCRA) filed by Customs I&I.
Advocate Khalid Mehmood Rajpar Advocate appeared in the court on behalf of customs department in this case.
According to the details, Customs I&I obtained credible information about dumping of smuggled foreign origin laptops at Shop No 70, Central Plaza, Karachi at which a search warrant was obtained from concerned court of Civil Judge & Judicial Magistrate South and raid was conducted on 20.2.2023.
The shop owned by respondent Abdul Bari was locked at the time of raid. Nobody came forward to claim the ownerships of goods after which customs issued a notice to the respondent/owner who obtained bail and then joined the investigation.
The respondent/owner claiming ownership before custom authorities claimed to have purchase the laptops from local market at Quetta. The Order in Original (OnO) was passed and goods remained seized at which owner filed an appeal before the Custom Appellate Tribunal.
The Member Judicial–III of Custom Appellate Tribunal heard the case although the goods were valued over Rs5 million. The tribunal ruled in favor of the appellant/owner which was challenged in the instant SCRA.
The bench after hearing Khalid Mehmood Rajpar Advocate suspended the operation of the judgment of customs appellate tribunal while office was directed to issue notices for a date to be fixed by the office of the court.
