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Constitutional Petition No. 1217 of 1979, decided on 19th August, 1986.
‑‑‑ S‑168‑‑Import Policy Order, 1978‑‑Constitution of Pakistan (1973), Art. 199‑ ‑Confiscation of imported goods‑‑Orders for‑‑Legality of‑ Orders, confiscating imported goods of petitioner on ground of violation of Import Policy Order, 1978 concurrently passed by Customs Authorities without taking into consideration previous practice of department in respect of import of disputed goods, was declared as illegal by High Court‑‑Setting aside such illegal order, High Court directed that case of petitioner be reconsidered by Customs Authorities.
Raja Haq Nawaz for Petitioner.
Ahmedullah Qudwai for Respondents.
Date of hearing: 19th August, 1986.
The petitioner had imported certain sports and games requisites in 1979. The Deputy Collector of Customs by his order dated 20th May, 1979 confiscated the said goods as he was of the view that they were toys. The petitioner filed this petition challenging the order as one which was against the previous practice of the Department and was discriminatory against the petitioner. During the pendency of the petition the Collector of Customs in appeal held on 22nd August, 1979 that those goods come under the category funfair and parlour games, the import of which was prohibited under the Import Policy Order, 1978.
2. Mr. Raja Haq Nawaz made only one point and that is that the Customs authorities have failed to follow their previous practice in respect of those games imported by the petitioner. Copy of order Marked H dated 5‑4‑1979 passed by Collector of Customs in appeal has been filed. in order to show that the target games have been treated as not mere toys but as games involving sense of excitement and competition which are covered by item 97.04.
3. Without commenting on the merits of the submissions of the petition we find that the question of previous practice of the Department in respect of such games/sports items/game requisites has been left out of the consideration by the Customs Authorities and particularly the order of another Officer of the same department made on 5‑4‑1979 has been completely ignored. We, therefore, are of the opinion that the two orders in question suffer from a serious omission of ignoring the relevant material in respect of the practice about dispute involved. We therefore, declare the order passed by the Deputy Collector of Customs on 20‑5‑1979 and the order passed by the Collector of Customs on 22‑8‑1979 as orders without lawful authority and we direct that the case of the petitioner be reconsidered by the Deputy Collector of Customs, Appraisement 11 Judicial in the light of the submissions made by the petitioner before us which have been reproduced above. The order of the Collector of Customs passed in appeal was not challenged in the petition but Mr. Raja Haq Nawaz produced its copy today and since the same suffers from the same defect of omission to consider the previous practice and was passed during pendency of this, petition, therefore, we have allowed Raja Haq Nawaz to challenge the same as there was same question of fact and law and adjournment for amendment would have been waste of time. The petition is therefore allowed in the above terms.
4. Mr. Ahmedullah Qudwai, Law Officer of the Customs Department was present at the time of hearing before us.
H.B.T./G‑28/K Petition allowed.
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