Alleged harassment: Bank takes revenue officials to court

BoR stamp officials issued an impugned notice, counsel submits.

KARACHI: Alleging harassment of its officials, Habib Metropolitan Bank moved the Sindh High Court against the Sindh Board of Revenue (BoR) secretary, assistant chief inspector and the deputy chief inspector of the stamps department.

Earlier, the SHC bench heard Rizwan Ahmed Siddiqui, counsel for the private bank that challenged the issuance of notice by the respondents (BoR stamp department officials) under section 73 of the Stamp Act, 1899, which warned the bank and its officials that concealment of correct information would attract a penalty and prosecution under the relevant criminal laws.

Siddiqui argued that according to the petition, the petitioner informed the stamps deputy chief inspector that banking companies are not supposed to disclose secrecy to any authority without due process of law that is under Section 25, 33-A of Banking Companies Ordinance, 1962, Section 5 of the Bankers’ Book of Evidence, 1891, Section 46-B of the State Bank of Pakistan Act, 1997. Officials of banks are not public officers, he added. This irked the respondent who further harassed the bank and its officials, the counsel submitted.

The petitioner bank prayed the court to direct the deputy chief inspector to withdraw the impugned notification, direct the BoR secretary to take action against the respondent and declare that he cannot direct the bank to furnish information regarding its clients without adopting the due process of law as envisaged under Section 94 of the Criminal Procedure Code or through the State Bank.

The bench, comprising Chief Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Justice Ghulam Sarwar Korai, ordered the issuance of pre-admission notices to the respondents for February 18.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2011.