AIR 1974 SUPREME COURT 171 ::1974 (1) SCC 3 ::1975 BLJR 387 ::1974 2 SCR 517 ::1974 2 SCR 9 ::1974 SCD 125

Supreme Court Of India

(V 61 C 29) (From: Patna)

Hon'ble Judge(s): V. R. Krishna Iyer, R. S. Sarkaria , JJ

Index Note: - Transfer of Property Act (4 of 1882) , S.54— Benami sale - Onus and proof - Nature of - Matters to be considered in determining benami nature of transaction stated. Brief Note: - (A) It is well settled that the burden of proving that a particular sale is benami and the apparent purchaser is not the real owner, always rests on the person asserting it to be so. This burden has to be strictly discharged by adducing legal evidence of a definite character which would either directly prove the fact of Benami or establish circumstances unerringly and reasonably raising an inference of that fact. The essence of a benami is the intention of the party or parties concerned; and not unoften such intention is shrouded in a thick veil which cannot be easily pierced through. But such difficulties do not relieve the person asserting the transaction to be benami of any part of the serious onus that rests on him: nor justify the acceptance of mere conjectures or surmises, as a substitute for proof. Though the question, whether a particular sale is Benami or not, is largely one of fact, and for determining this question, no absolute formulae or acid test, uniformally applicable in all situations, can be laid down, yet in weighing the probabilities and for gathering the relevant indicia, the courts are usually guided by these circumstances: (1) the ....