Benami Transaction Act, 2016

A retired clerk in Kalyan buys a flat and puts it in his wife's name so that his brother cannot claim a share. A businessman buys land in his driver's name to keep it off his books. Both describe the flat or the land as mine in private. Family law meets property law at exactly this point: when the name on the title is not the name of the person who paid. India's benami law says when that arrangement is tolerated, when it is punished, and when the State can take the property.

In two minutes

The Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act 1988, as rewritten by the 2016 amendment, bars benami transactions and suits to recover benami property, allows confiscation and criminal penalties, and protects ordinary family arrangements by specific exceptions.

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