KARACHI: A division bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) declared SRO 1125(I)/ 2011 as ultra vires the constitution and restrained customs officials from demanding any duty from the petitioners on several constitutional petitions filed by Al-Razzaq Fibers and other 25 importers.
On 19 January 2021, court released a details judgment in which court observed that “accordingly for the reasons, instant petitions are allowed in the following terms that i, amendment in section 3 (2)(b) read with section 4(c) of the sales tax act, 1990 through finance act, 2017, to the extent of substituting the words “board with the approval of Federal Minister Incharge” is ultra vires to constitution, and contrary to law, hence of no legal effect.
ii, SRO 584(I)/ 2017 dated July 01 2017 issued in terms of and in purported exercise of powers conferred by, the amendment in section 3(2)(b) and section 4(c) of the sales tax act, 1990, particularly adding of a new condition XIV to SRO 1125(I)/ 2011, is declared to be ultra vires the constitution, and is of no legal effect.
iii, the respondents are restrained from demanding any duty in terms of SRO 584(I)/ 2017 dated July 1, 2017 from the petitioners, iv, provisions of section 74A, suffice to say, have no relevance to the controversy in hand because it seeks validation of the facts of “federal government” and not that of the “board, with the approval of the federal minister-in-charge”.
Abdul Moiz Jaferi, Sofia Saeed, Amjad Javaid Hashmi, Arshad Shahzad, Qazi Umair Ali, Waseem Shaikh, Syed Mohsin Ali, Asad Raza, Syed Irshad-ur-Rahman and Umerzad Gul advocates were appeared on behalf of the petitioners and Muhammad Aqeel Qureshi, Khalid Rajpar, Ameer Bukhsh Metlo, Pervaiz Ahmed Memon and Irfan Mir Halephoto Advocates were presented on behalf of the customs department in this case.
