The Supreme Court has held that shelled almonds and cashews do not fall within the specific categories of smuggled goods listed under the Customs Act, and that breaking import rules by itself does not turn those products into smuggled goods in law.
Customs authorities had challenged Balochistan High Court judgments that backed a tribunal’s earlier decisions. A three-member bench — Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi, Justice Muhammad Shafi Siddiqui and Justice Mian Gul Hassan Aurangzeb — heard the appeals on October 8, 2026. In a detailed judgment authored by Justice Siddiqui, the court declined leave to appeal and dismissed the petitions.
What the court decided
The bench examined a notification that spoke of “all kinds of food grains and food items.” It said that wording could not be stretched to cover distinct products such as almonds and cashews. The notification named types of food grains including wheat, rice, maize, barley and pulses. Almonds and cashews, the court observed, are ordinarily classed as nuts and do not sit in the same category as food grains.
If the authorities meant to bring almonds and cashews under the smuggled-goods notification, they should have named them expressly, the judgment said. Being edible was not enough to pull them into that broad phrase. Restrictions and conditions on importing these products under the Import Policy Order 2022 — the government’s rules on what may be brought into the country — also did not automatically make them smuggled goods under the Customs Act. Their status had to follow the law and the notification’s actual terms.
Because shelled almonds and cashews were outside the listed categories, the court added that rules aimed at vehicles used to move smuggled goods could not justify seizing the transport in this case.
How the dispute began
According to the case record, customs officials stopped vehicles carrying foreign-origin almonds and cashews in Nokkundi on October 20, 2024, after a tip-off. The goods declarations shown by the drivers did not match customs records: those papers related to Iranian raisins and listed different vehicle details. Customs ordered seizure of the goods and the vehicles.
The Customs Appellate Tribunal later allowed release of the goods if applicable duties and taxes were paid, plus a penalty equal to 20 per cent of their customs value, and it set aside the vehicle seizures. The Balochistan High Court then dismissed customs challenges to those tribunal decisions. The Supreme Court found no basis to disturb the high court’s judgments.
Timeline: what has happened so far
- October 20, 2024: Customs intercepts vehicles with foreign-origin almonds and cashews in Nokkundi; declarations do not match records.
- Thereafter: Customs seizes the goods and vehicles; the Customs Appellate Tribunal allows release on duties, taxes and a 20% penalty, and lifts vehicle seizure.
- Thereafter: The Balochistan High Court dismisses customs challenges to the tribunal’s decisions.
- October 8, 2026: A three-judge Supreme Court bench hears the customs authorities’ appeals.
- October 29, 2026: The Supreme Court dismisses the appeals, holding shelled almonds and cashews outside the smuggled-goods notification.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Supreme Court ne kaha hai ke shelled badam aur kaju us fehrist mein nahi aate jisme customs “smuggled” saman ginta hai. Sirf import ki sharton ki khilafwarzi se ye cheezein khud-ba-khud smuggled nahi ban jatien. Nokkundi wale mamle mein customs ki appeals kharij ho gain. Is se ye wazeh hota hai ke notification mein jo cheezein likhi hon, unhi par qanooni pehra lagta hai.
