ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court held that time bound proceedins in terms of Sections 179(3) and 179(4) of Customs Act, 1969, is mandatory.
A three-member bench, headed by Justice Yahya Afridi and comprising Justice Muhammad Shafi Siddiqui and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb allowed the petition of M/s Commander Agro (Private) Limited and set aside the impugned order of the Lahore High Court.
The primary question before the apex court was whether after issuance of show cause notice on 05.12.2014 the order-in-original was passed within the time contoured by Section 179(3) of the Customs Act, 1969?
The Court said that in the instant case show cause notice was issued on 05.12.2014, and the proceedings commenced on it before the Collector, Collectorate of Customs (Adjudication), Faisalabad, who was under an obligation to decide the case within 120 days.
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The law at relevant time prescribed the period of 120 days to decide the case or within such extended period, as the law permits, for which reasons ought to be recorded in writing; but in any case, it should not have exceeded by 60 days (as it then was), via Finance Act, 2009.
In counting the prescribed period in terms of Section 179(3) (as it then was) a period of 120 days and another period of 30 days of adjournment; i.e., 150 days were available to decide the case within the frame of section 179(3). This makes 150 days that is 120 days of the limitation provided under Section 179(3) and 30 days of adjournment in terms of second proviso to Section 179(3). The order ought to have been passed on or before 4th May, 2015. However, the order shown to have been passed either on 4th June, 2015 or on 19th May, 2015.
The order said that time bound proceeding in terms of sections 179(3) and 179(4) of Customs Act, 1969, is mandatory. It observed that the like provisions were adjudged as mandatory in the case of Collector of Sales Tax, Gujranwala and others Vs. Super Asia Mohammad Din and others (2017 SCMR 1427). “The matter was set at rest by larger bench of the Supreme Court in the case of Messers Wak Limited Multan Road, Lahore and others Vs. Collector Central Excise and Sales Tax, Lahore and others (2025 SCMR 1280), which confirmed and upheld the findings of Super Asia case, confirming the time bound proceedings as mandatory,” added the order.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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