TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (2) TMI 620
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....alia, reliefs of declaration, eviction, recovery of damages, rendition of accounts and permanent and mandatory injunctions in respect of property bearing No. 33, Uday Park, New Delhi (hereinafter referred to as "the suit property"). 3. It is the case of the Appellant that he left India in the year 1962 for higher studies and thereafter pursued his education and career in the USA. During the course of his stay abroad, he remitted substantial funds to India and entrusted the same to his father, late Shri Jai Gopal Gugnani, for being held and utilized for the benefit of the Appellant. Subsequent thereto, on the suggestion of his father, the Appellant decided to purchase a plot of land in New Delhi for construction of a residential house. Acting on this advice, and as the Appellant was based abroad and unable to manage his affairs in India, it was agreed that the plot would be acquired in the name of his father, who would hold the same for and on behalf of the Appellant. Pursuant thereto, a perpetual lease deed dated 09.05.1973 in respect of the suit property measuring approximately 425.25 sq. mts., was executed by the Delhi Development Authority in favour of the Appellant's father ....
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....by the learned Joint Registrar by Orders dated 29.05.2015. Aggrieved thereby, the Appellant preferred Chamber Appeals being OA Nos. 265-266 of 2015. 10. The said Chamber Appeals were listed before the learned Single Judge on 20.07.2015, on which date the matter was posted to be heard on the issue of maintainability. Thereafter, while hearing the parties on the issue of maintainability, by way of the Impugned Order, the learned Single Judge dismissed the suit as barred under the Benami Act, holding that the transaction in question was a benami transaction and did not fall within the exception under Section 4(3)(b) of the Benami Act. Aggrieved thereof, the Appellant has preferred the present appeal. 11. We have heard the learned counsel for the parties and perused the record. 12. From the record, it is evident that while hearing the Chamber Appeals, the learned Single Judge expressly put the Appellant to notice that Issue No. 1 relating to maintainability would be heard as a legal issue. The learned Single Judge thereafter proceeded to exercise jurisdiction akin to Order VII Rule 11 CPC and dismissed the suit on the ground of statutory bar. The relevant order passed by the l....
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.... amounts to deciding a contested issue of fact prematurely and has resulted in denial of a fair opportunity to the Appellant to establish the pleaded fiduciary relationship by leading evidence. 16. While placing reliance on Marcel Martins v. M. Printer, (2012) 5 SCC 342, he submitted that fiduciary relationships fall within the protection of Section 4(3)(b) and are not barred by the Benami Act. The distinction drawn by the learned Single Judge on the basis of "compulsion" is unsupported by the language of the statute, which does not require compulsion or breach of trust as a pre-condition for the applicability of the exception. 17. He further contended that the interpretation adopted by the learned Single Judge of Sections 4(3)(b) and 7 of the Benami Act is also erroneous. Section 7 and Section 4(3)(b) operate in distinct fields and must be harmoniously construed; to read the repeal as nullifying the statutory exception would render Section 4(3)(b) otiose and defeat the clear legislative intent reflected in the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Benami Act. 18. The principal question that thus arises for consideration is whether the learned Single Judge was justified ....
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....recise definition, it implies a relationship that is analogous to the relationship between a trustee and the beneficiaries of the trust. The expression is in fact wider in its import for it extends to all such situations as place the parties in positions that are founded on confidence and trust on the one part and good faith on the other. 38. In determining whether a relationship is based on trust or confidence, relevant to determining whether they stand in a fiduciary capacity, the court shall have to take into consideration the factual context in which the question arises for it is only in the factual backdrop that the existence or otherwise of a fiduciary relationship can be deduced in a given case. Having said that, let us turn to the facts of the present case once more to determine whether the appellant stood in a fiduciary capacity vis-à-vis the respondent-plaintiffs. (emphasis added) 21. In view of the aforesaid, the issue as to the applicability of the exception carved out under Section 4(3)(b) of the Benami Act is, therefore, a mixed question of law and fact. Once issues had been framed and the suit had proceeded to trial, the learned Single Jud....