ORDER SHEET

HIGH COURT OF SINDH AT KARACHI

C.P No.D- 7927 of 2015

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DATE ORDER WITH SIGNATURE(S) OF JUDGE(S)

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1. For orders on Misc: Appln. No.457/16

2. For Hearing of Misc: Appln. No.38868/15

3. For Hearing of Main Case.

05.01.2016.

Mr. Arshad Hussain Khan along with Muhammad Ehsan and Abdul Qadir Mirza, Advocate for the Petitioner.

Miss Masooda Siraj, Advocate for Respondent No.2 alongwith Mr. Ilyas Ahsan, Appraising Officer.

Mr. Shaikh Liaquat Hussain, Standing Counsel.

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Through this Petition, the Petitioner has in fact challenged the Valuation Ruling No.755/2015 dated 31^st August, 2015. At the same time, it is also mentioned in Para-2 of the Memo of Petition, that this Valuation Ruling was also challenged under Revision Application No. 145/2015 before the Director General of Customs Valuation which was dismissed vide order dated 04^th December, 2015.

Learned Counsel for Respondent No.2 has filed parawise comments which are taken on record. Learned Counsel for the Respondent No.2 with the assistance of Mr. Ilyas Ahsan, Appraising Officer, also informed the Court that after dismissal of Revision Application, the same Petitioner has already filed appeal, which is pending before the Custom Appellate Tribunal, which fact has been admitted by the learned Counsel for the Petitioner but he submits that since the consignment is stuck-up, therefore, the Petitioner wants the release of the consignment in order to save from huge amount of demurrage subject to deposit the postdated cheque of differential amount of duties and taxes with the Nazir of this court. He further argued that at present the Custom Appellate Tribunal is not in session, therefore, the petitioner could not approach even for release of consignment on payment of differential amount of duties and taxes.

Learned Counsel for Respondent No.2 pointed out an order dated 10.11.2015 passed by the learned Division Bench of this Court in C.P No.D-6918/2015 which was also related to some dispute in connection with valuation ruling. In the aforesaid judgment some modalities were settled. In Paragraph 2 of the concluding paragraph of the judgment it has been held that the goods may be released U/s 81 of the Custom Act after securing differential amount of duty and taxes in the shape of Pay Order/Bank Guarantee as the case may be, by the Director Valuation without fail. Relying on the same dictum, the learned counsel for Respondent No.2 and the officer present in Court argued that the consignment can only be released subject to deposit of differential amount of duty and taxes to the satisfaction of concerned Collector and not to Nazir of this court which would be without prejudice to their plea and or stand that may be taken before the Custom Appellate Tribunal. The learned counsel for the Petitioner agrees to deposit the entire differential amount of duty and taxes to the concerned Collector through Pay Order for the release of the consignment. Order accordingly.

It is agreed by the learned counsel for the parties that in case the appeal of the Petitioner is allowed by the Tribunal and it attains finality, the differential amount of duty and taxes may be refunded back to the Petitioner in accordance with law. It is expected that the learned Custom Appellate Tribunal will decide the appeal preferably within two months.

Petition is disposed of along with listed applications in the above terms.

JUDGE