ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday dismissed the Customs Department appeal challenging the lower courts’ decision to hand over a vehicle to a citizen while imposing Rs50,000 fine on the department for bringing frivolous petition to the court.
SC Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar heard the case pertaining to release of a non-custom paid vehicle to a citizen on Wednesday.
Customs Intelligence DG Faiz Hameed appeared before the court. During hearing, Justice Isa told off the Customs DG saying if he was above the law. The judge asked him why he was not handing over the vehicle to the citizen when three courts had ordered him to do so.
“You have impounded the vehicle and consigned it warehouse to get rusted. Who will make up for the loss,” the judge asked the Customs DG. The DG replied it’s a unique case.
Justice Mazhar chipped in saying “What’s unique in this case! The collector has logged that the owner of the vehicle has paid all taxes and duties.”
Justice Isa inquired what would be the price of that 1997 model car. The DG replied it would be worth around Rs2000,000 to Rs2500,000. Justice Isa observed that the citizen had spent more than the worth of the car in terms of litigation fees and time.
He wondered why in the first place, the Customs Department did not secure borders to stop the arrival of non-custom paid vehicles in Pakistan.
With this, the court dismissed the Customs Department appeal against the release of the confiscated vehicle.
The court also imposed Rs50,000 fine on the Customs Department for filing unnecessary petitions in the higher courts, thus wasting their time.
