Lahore High Court (LHC) has ruled that order passed by President of Pakistan can be challenged at the Principal Seat of LHC at Lahore by any resident of Punjab and there is no need to file application for hearing of case at the principal seat.
It is reliably learnt that LHC has issued order in a petition against the President of Pakistan, Chairman FBR and Commissioner Inland Revenue, RTO, Bahawalpur on the issue of illegal acceptance of time barred representation filed by the FBR under Section 32 of the Federal Tax Ombudsman Ordinance, 2000, while the petty issue is denial of lawful refunds unlawfully blocked by the RTO functionaries.
The Principal Seat means the principal place of high court to conduct hearing of cases under the direct supervision of Chief Justice of High Court. It may also be classified as headquarter of high court of a province. For example, principal seat of LHC is located in Lahore and Sindh High Court is located at Karachi, a tax expert explained.
The expert further said that the petition moved by a taxpayer falls under the territorial jurisdiction of Regional Tax Office, Bahawalpur through Waheed Shahzad Butt, Advocate, challenging the acceptance of representation by the President of Pakistan against the order passed by FTO Ch. Abdur Rauf, stating that act of office of President is patently illegal and President of Pakistan has no power to condone or ignore the time limitation issue for filing of representation by the FBR against the orders passed by the FTO.
Elaborating the matter tax lawyer added that in present case President of Pakistan being appellate authority against FTO orders enjoys nationwide jurisdiction hence a nationwide presence, therefore, public office of President of Pakistan fall within the territorial jurisdiction of every High Court of Pakistan. In the light of provisions of Lahore High Court (Establishment of Benches) Rules, 1981, all matters arising within the area assigned to a Bench shall be filed before and disposed of by that Bench, unless otherwise directed by the Chief Justice.
A taxpayer falls under the jurisdiction of RTO Bahawalpur may move before the Bahawalpur Bench of LHC, however, in the instance case, focus is on the jurisdictional locale of the public office rather than the physical presence of person holding the office. The real test is to see the geographical extent of the jurisdiction enjoyed by the "public office." In this case the impugned order has been passed by the President of Pakistan, who exercises jurisdiction nationwide; therefore, his order can be challenged by an aggrieved resident of Province of Punjab at Principal Seat of LHC rather than moving towards LHC-Bench having territorial jurisdiction over the public functionaries of RTO Bahawalpur.
Petitioner states "Through present petition the petitioner questions the working of President of Pakistan as Appellate Authority under Section 32 of the FTO Ordinance, 2000, and working of FBR functionaries who play with the precious resources of National Exchequer (taxpayer's money) under the umbrella of powers available with IRS officials and ultimate wastage of taxpayer's money in futile litigation either by passing patently illegal orders or retaining taxpayer's money in shape of refunds and then defending it to save the skin of higher authorities.
Whenever maladministration is evident, the FTO automatically acquires jurisdiction. 'Maladministration has a broad, inclusive definition in the FTO Ordinance and includes decisions, processes, recommendations, acts of omission or commission that are contrary to law, rules and regulations and are perverse, arbitrary, unreasonable, unjust, biased, oppressive or discriminatory. By this criteria the departmental intentional lapse of not issuing the lawful refund of the petitioner and long silence without any lawful excuse, does constitute maladministration as defined in Section 2(3) of the FTO Ordinance and, therefore, falls well within the exclusive jurisdiction of the FTO without any restraint.
LHC order states "Petitioner has impugned order dated 17.11.2016 passed by the President of Pakistan. Petitioner through this application submits that the case be entertained at the Principal Seat. I am afraid there is no need of such an application. Impugned order has been passed by the President of Pakistan, hence the matter can be heard at the Principal Seat. Faced with this situation, learned counsel for the petitioner wishes to withdraw the application. Hence, instant application is dismissed as withdrawn," says the order. Office is directed to allot a number to the petition after due security and place the same before an appropriate bench for hearing," LHC ordered.
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