Fakir Muhammad Punjabi v Pakistan

• Jurisdiction: Pakistán
• Date: 21 January 1958
• Court: Supreme Court (Pakistan)

Pakistan, Supreme Court.

(Muhammad Munir C.J.; Shahabuddin, Cornelius, Muhammad Sharif and Amiruddin Ahmad JJ.)

Fakir Muhammad Punjabi

and

Federation of Pakistan.

State territory Sovereignty over the air Whether part of the land The law of Pakistan.

The Facts.The appellant was going from Karachi to Dacca by air with members of his family and one Zohra Bibi, his maidservant. Zohra Bibi was carrying with her 517¹/₂ tolas of gold valued at Rs. 53,506/11/- without a permit from the State Bank, such a permit being required by Notification No. 51 issued under the authority of the Sea Customs Act, 1878. The Customs Authorities seized the gold on the ground that she was not permitted to take it out of the capital. The Collector of Customs subsequently ordered Mst. Zohra Bibi either to pay a fine or to suffer confiscation of the seized gold, which was ultimately confiscated in default of payment of the fine. A Customs Appeal preferred by the appellant to the Central Board of Revenue against the order was rejected, whereupon the appellant filed a civil suit against the orders of the respondents which was eventually dismissed. Thereafter, the appellant filed a petition for the issue of a writ against the Collector of Customs and the Central Board of Revenue, Karachi, ordering them to return or surrender the gold confiscated by the Collector. This petition was dismissed, and it was against this dismissal that the appellant brought the present appeal, on the ground, inter alia, that, since the Sea Customs Act, 1878, only conferred powers in relation to exports and imports by sea or by land, there was no power to issue Notification No. 51 in so far as it related to the air.

Held: that the appeal must be dismissed. Unlike the sea, of which only the portion known as territorial waters belonged to the country bordering on it, the air strip from the surface of the land of a country up to the sky entirely belonged to that country and as an appendage...