KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) suspended the bailable warrants issued by custom court vide order of dated May 3, 2018 in the sum of Rs200,000 against the suspect on an petition filed by Sajid Haji Haroon, partner of M/s A.K. Marketing, who was booked in a case of alleged income tax evasion case.
A single member bench heard the appeal on July 17, 2018.
During the hearing, Muhammad Faheem Bhayo and Zulfiquar Ali Khan, advocates for the suspect argued that special judge has wrongly taken cognizance of the matter as deputy commissioner Inland Revenue is not competent under law or otherwise has any legal power to take cognizance under Sub-Section 2 of Section 203 of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.
He further stated that special judge, who under law can take cognizance only upon lodging of complaint in writing by the commissioner Inland Revenue, whereas, in the case in hand the complaint has been made by the deputy commissioner Inland Revenue Audit unit-03, zone-03 LTU, Karachi which is without jurisdiction.
After hearing, the court suspended bail-able warrants and observed in its order that “be that as it may, let notice be issued to the respondents as well as deputy attorney general and till next date, the bail-able warrants issued by customs court shall remain suspended”.