TILLA GUL and another vs DEPUTY COLLECTOR OF CENTRAL EXCISE & LAND
This matter concerns the legal validity of actions taken by Customs Officers in the Khyber Agency and Torkham Land Customs Station on 10-8-1982. The core legal question is whether the Sea Customs Act 1878 remained applicable to these Tribal Areas despite its repeal by the Customs Act 1969. The petitioners argued that upon the repeal of the 1878 Act, Customs Officers lacked the statutory authority to seize goods or initiate proceedings, rendering the orders of the Deputy Collector, Collector (Appeals), and the Additional Secretary without jurisdiction. The High Court had previously held that the Customs Officers continued to exercise powers under the 1878 Act by virtue of the Tribal Areas (Application of Acts) Regulation 1965, a position challenged by the petitioners. The Supreme Court, recognizing the issue as one of law and considerable general importance, granted leave to appeal to determine whether the 1965 Regulation effectively preserved the application of the repealed 1878 Act in the Tribal Areas.
- Was the Sea Customs Act 1878 applicable to the Khyber Agency and Torkham Land Customs Station on 10-8-1982 despite its repeal by the Customs Act 1969?
- Did the Tribal Areas (Application of Acts) Regulation 1965 preserve the authority of Customs Officers to act under the Sea Customs Act 1878 after its repeal?
- Sea Customs Act 1878
- Customs Act 1969
- Tribal Areas (Application of Acts) Regulation 1965
ORDER
1. ' NASIM HASAN SHAH, J.---This order will dispose of the above two petitions as the question of law arising in both of them is the same.
2. ' The question is whether the Sea Customs Act 1878 was applicable on 10-8-1982 to the Khyber Agency and Torkham Land Customs Station despite the repeal of the said Act by the Customs Act, 1969 (Act IV of 1969)? According to the petitioner, after the repeal of the Sea Customs Act, 1878 by the Act of 1969 there was no law authorising the Customs Officers either to seize the goods or to proceed against the petitioners. Hence the order of the Deputy Collector of the Central Excise & Land Customs Peshawar, Collector of Central Excise & Land Customs (Appeals), Northern Zone, Lahore and the revisional order of the Additional Secretary to the Government of Pakistan, Ministry of Finance, were all passed without jurisdiction and were of no legal effect.
3. The High Court has held that the Customs Officers in the Tribal Areas, notwithstanding the repeal of the Sea Customs Act, continued to exercise the power conferred upon them under the said Act in pursuance of the Tribal Areas (Application of Acts) Regulation 1965. This view is contested on the ground that these Regulations were of no avail after the repeal of the Sea Customs Act, 1878.
4. ' The question involved is one of law and of considerable general importance. Leave is granted in both these cases.
5. ' Security in each case shall be furnished in the sum of Rs, 10,000.
6. ' The appeal shall be made ready on the existing record with liberty to the parties to add further documents if any and put up for hearing before the summer vacations 1990, if possible.