JEMTEC

The word Benami means anonymous and the term Benami Transaction is used to describe a transaction where one person pays for property but the property is transferred to or held by somebody else. The person who pays for the property is the real beneficiary but is not recorded as the legal owner of the property. This enables the payer to achieve undesirable purposes such as utilizing black money, evading the payment of tax and avoiding making payments to creditors. The old Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988 was enacted in the year 1988 to prohibit all benami transactions. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in  Bhim Singh v. Kan Singh  AIR 1980 SC 727, explained Benami Transaction as "Where a person buys a property with his own money but in the name of another person without any intention to benefit such other person, the transaction is called benami. In that case the transferee holds the property for the benefit of the person who has contributed the purchase money, and he i...