News Article 1

The Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Jaydayal Poddar v. Bibi Hazra (Mst.) (1974) 1 SCC 3  has held that “the burden of proving that a particular sale is benami and the apparent purchaser is not the real owner, always rests on the person asserting it to be sold. It is further observed that this burden has to be strictly discharged by adducing legal evidence of a definite character which would either directly prove the fact of the benami transaction or establish circumstances unerringly and reasonably raising an interference of that fact.” Further in In Binapani Paul case the Supreme Court has laid down six criteria to determine a benami transaction as follows:

(1) the source from which the purchase money came;

(2) the nature and possession of the property, after the purchase;

(3) motive, if any, for giving the transaction a benami colour;

(4) the position of the parties and the relationship, if any, between the claimant and the alleged benamidar;

(5) the custody of the title deeds after the sale;and

(6) the conduct of the parties concerned in dealing with the property after the sale.