Benami bar is not retrospective: pending restoration proceedings survive, and later execution steps do not create a fresh barred claim.

Section 4 of the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988 does not operate retrospectively to extinguish a restoration claim or related proceeding already instituted before the Act commenced. The Supreme Court held that where an application under section 144 CPC had been made and allowed before the statutory bar arose, a later writ issued under Order 21, rule 35 CPC was only a consequential execution step and did not amount to a fresh claim. The High Court erred in treating the provision as retrospective against the pending proceeding.

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Issues: Whether section 4 of the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988 barred restoration proceedings and consequential execution steps when the application under section 144 of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908 had been filed before the Act came into force.

Analysis: The Court held that section 4 is not retrospective so as to extinguish pending claims or proceedings already instituted before the Act commenced. On the admitted facts, the appellant's application under section 144 of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908 had been made and allowed before the Ordinance came into force. The later issuance of the writ under Order 21, rule 35 of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908 was only a consequential act of court and did not amount to a fresh claim or action by the appellant after the statutory bar arose.

Conclusion: Section 4 did not bar the appellant's pending restoration claim, and the High Court was wrong in treating the provision as retrospective against that proceeding.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded and the revisional order of the High Court was set aside.

Ratio Decidendi: Section 4 of the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988 does not bar a claim or proceeding that was instituted before the Act came into force, and a subsequent consequential execution step does not convert a pending claim into a fresh barred action.

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