A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) Thursday suspended single bench orders declaring formation and action of Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) illegal.
The division bench headed by Justice Muhammad Khalid Mehmood Khan passed these orders while hearing an intra-court appeal filed by PRA challenging single bench orders.
During the hearing, PRA’s Counsel Malik Awais Khalid arguing before the bench submitted that LHC single bench had declared formation and action of PRA illegal while allowing over 200 petitions against it.
He said the petitions were not maintainable under Article 199 of the Constitution as it did not fall under jurisdiction of the court. He said it was a policy matter and the court did not have any jurisdiction to interfere in it. He further said that the people had stopped to pay taxes after the court orders. He pleaded the court to set aside the single bench orders. He also requested the court to suspend the orders till the final decision of the appeal.
At this, the bench suspended the orders and issued notices to the respondents for February 11 and adjourned the matter.
It is pertinent to mention that a single bench of LHC allowing 225 petitions declared the formation and subsequent action of PRA illegal while setting aside the appointments of its chairman and members on January 25, 2016. All notices and orders issued by the Punjab Revenue Authority for the recovery of general sales tax were also set aside.
