ORDER

By this petition in terms of Article 199 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973, the petitioner challenges the search conducted by the Officer Inland Revenue, RTO Bahawalpur (respondent No.5) at the business premises of the petitioner under Section 38 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990 ("the Act, 1990") on 10.04.2025.2.Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that Section 38 of the Act, 1990 is merely a general enabling provision and cannot be exercised independently without invoking Section 40 of the Act, which is a special provision governing entry, search and seizure. He argues that the law, as settled by this Court in "Ghulam Hassan v. Federation of Pakistan through Ministry of Finance, Islamabad and 5 others"(2021 PTD 1379), mandates prior permission of the Magistrate before any forcible entry or retrieval of record from business premises. It is contended that no notice under Section 38 was issued, no prior authorization from the Magistrate was obtained, and the o...