Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act 2016 — the law in short
What the courts have decided on section Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act 2016, in one screen. Read this first; open an entry when you need the facts, the reasoning and the source.
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Union of India v Ganpati Dealcom P Ltd
Supreme CourtCuts both waysOverruled
Can benami proceedings be taken against me for a property bought before October 2016?
On the current position, yes, because the judgment that said otherwise has gone. In 2022 the Supreme Court held that the 2016 amendment to the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act created new substantive offences and could not operate on transactions before 25 October 2016, struck down s.3(2) and s.5 of the un-amended 1988 Act, and directed pre-amendment prosecutions and confiscations to be quashed. On 18 October 2024 it recalled that judgment in its entirety, holding that constitutional validity had been decided with no lis and no contest between the parties, and restored the appeal for fresh hearing.
Listed strongest first: Supreme Court, then High Court, then Tribunal, then CBDT. Nothing here has yet been read in full by a chartered accountant — open an entry to see where it came from.