TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (8) TMI 1545
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....ts who all are members of the same family on the assertion that the father of the defendants No.9 & 10 has purchased the suit property in the name of defendants No.9 & 10 firstly in the year 1968 and again in the year 1972 by two different sale deeds. At that time when the plaintiffs and defendants No.11 & 12 had not been born and during that period, the father of the plaintiffs who was also the father of the defendants No.9 & 10 had purchased the suit property in the name of defendants No.9 & 10. 3. An application was filed by the defendants seeking rejection of plaint on the ground of it being barred by the Act of 1988 contending therein that the suit for recovery of any Benami property is barred in terms of Section 4 of 1988. The said application has been rejected by the Trial Court. 4. Learned counsel for the applicant has vehemently argued before this Court that the Trial Court has wrongly relied upon Section 2(9) of the Act of 1988 because the said provision has been inserted by the Amendment Act of 2016 and the Amendment Act of 2016 would not be having any retrospective effect. It is argued that the unamended provisions of the Act will have to be seen and as per Sectio....
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.... was thereafter recalled in R.P.No.359/2023 by the Hon'ble Supreme Court. However, very recently the matter has been decided by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Manjula v. D.A. Srinivas, (2026) 488 ITR 407 and it has been held that declaratory, procedural, curative and machinery oriented provisions will apply retrospectively whereas the penal provisions creating new offences for enhancing punishments will apply only prospectively. The Hon'ble Apex Court held as under:- "22.12. Applying the above principles, it is clear that the 2016 amendments were enacted to cure the mischiefs and omissions in the original legislation, which had become largely unworkable in practice. The legislative intent to make the statute effective is manifest. The prohibition against benami transactions already existed. No period of limitation was prescribed either under the original Act or under the amended Act for initiating action against benami property or against persons involved in such transactions. Action for confiscation or prosecution may therefore be taken whenever the transaction comes to the notice of the competent authorities. 22.13. Further, when a lis come....
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....is a trustee or other person standing in a fiduciary capacity, and the property is held for the benefit of another person for whom he is a trustee or towards whom he stands in such capacity." 13. As per Section 4(3)(b) there was exclusion when the properties held in trust or a person is standing in a fiduciary capacity. The transaction in this case being in favor of minor children, then it becomes a relationship between guardian and ward. The relationship between guardian and ward is undisputedly a fiduciary relationship. The law relating to fiduciary relationships was considered in detail by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Pawan Kumar v. Babulal, (2019) 4 SCC 367 which was a case of father and children and the Hon'ble Apex Court held as under:- "10. While considering the question whether the case of the plaintiffs would come within the purview of sub-section (3) of Section 4 of the Act, the matter was dealt with by this Court as under: (Marcel Martins case [Marcel Martins v. M. Printer, (2012) 5 SCC 342 : (2012) 3 SCC (Civ) 98], SCC pp. 350-53, paras 28-38) "28. The critical question then is whether sub-section (3) of Section 4 saves a transaction like th....
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....upulous good faith and candor which it requires; a person having the duty, created by his undertaking, to act primarily for another's benefit in matters connected with such undertaking. Also more specifically, in a statute, a guardian, trustee, executor, administrator, receiver, conservator or any person acting in any fiduciary capacity for any person, trust or estate.' 33. Words and Phrases, Permanent Edn. (Vol. 16-A, p. 41) defines "fiducial relation" as under: 'There is a technical distinction between a "fiducial relation" which is more correctly applicable to legal relationships between parties, such as guardian and ward, administrator and heirs, and other similar relationships, and "confidential relation" which includes the legal relationships, and also every other relationship wherein confidence is rightly reposed and is exercised. Generally, the term "fiduciary" applies to any person who occupies a position of peculiar confidence towards another. It refers to integrity and fidelity. It contemplates fair dealing and good faith, rather than legal obligation, as the basis of the transaction. The term includes those informal relations which exist w....
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....icially collected, one who receives a note or other security for collection. In the following cases debt has been held to be not a fiduciary one: a factor who retains the money of his principal, an agent under an agreement to account and pay over monthly, one with whom a general deposit of money is made.' 37. We may at this stage refer to a recent decision of this Court in CBSE v. Aditya Bandopadhyay [CBSE v. Aditya Bandopadhyay, (2011) 8 SCC 497 : 6 SCEC 25], wherein Raveendran, J. speaking for the Court in that case explained the terms "fiduciary" and "fiduciary relationship" in the following words: (SCC pp. 524-25, para 39) '39. The term "fiduciary" refers to a person having a duty to act for the benefit of another, showing good faith and candour, where such other person reposes trust and special confidence in the person owing or discharging the duty. The term "fiduciary relationship" is used to describe a situation or transaction where one person (beneficiary) places complete confidence in another person (fiduciary) in regard to his affairs, business or transaction(s). The term also refers to a person who holds a thing in trust for another (beneficiary). The f....