MR. JUSTICE SYED DEEDAR HUSSAIN SHAH.- (1) . Leave is sought against the order of the High Court of Sindh, Karachi, dated 1.6.2001, passed in C.P. No. 617 of 2001.
2. Brief facts of the case are that the respondent filed a Constitutional petition in the High Court of Sindh, Karachi, alleging that petitioner No. 1 refused to hand over the passenger coach to the respondent as per orders of the Additional Collector of Customs dated 20.2.2001. The said coach was ordered to be returned to the respondent on payment of redemption fine of Rs. 50,0. The Law Officer, who appeared on behalf of the petitioners before the High Court, admitted that the possession of the disputed coach was not handed over to the respondent on the ground that appeal filed against the order of Additional Collector of Customs dated 20.2.2001, was dismissed in default and for its restoration an application had been filed, which was fixed for orders on 22.5.2001.
In view of the above, the matter was adjourned to 30.5.2001. Learned Deputy Attorney-General on the date of hearing stated that he had no knowledge as to whether the appeal filed by respondent No. 1 had been restored or whether any stay against the order dated 20.2.2001 had been granted and that petitioner No. 1 had not taken efforts to contact him. In view of the above background the learned Division Bench of the High Court disposed of the petition vide impugned order dated 1.6.2001, directing petitioner No. 1 to hand over the possession of the passenger coach to the respondent within a period of two weeks from the date of the said order. Hence, this petition.
3. Mr. Khursheed Hashmi, learned Deputy Attorney- General, inter alia, contended that the impugned order is not within the jurisdiction of the High Court; that the learned High Court had allowed the petition without examining the record of the case and particularly the proceedings pending before the hierarchy of Customs/Appellate Tribunal. On a query from us, as to whether any stay order was passed by the higher forum against the order of the Additional Collector of Customs, he frankly conceded that there was no stay order.
4. We have considered the arguments of the learned Deputy Attorney-General and also minutely gone through the impugned order, which does not suffer from any jurisdictional error or misconstruction of law and is not open to exception. Consequently, the petition is dismissed on merits and leave is declined.