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2005 (8) TMI 688 - SC - Indian LawsBenami transaction - Prohibition of the right to recover property held benami - Scope of Section 4(1) of the Benami Transaction Act, 1988 - Litigation between a father and his married daughter on the right of ownership of a house - Whether the appellant was entitled to raise the plea of benami in view of introduction of the Benami Transaction (Prohibition) Act, 1988 ("Act") - Act was retrospective in operation Or Not ? - HELD THAT:- We are of the view that the presumption that the suit property was purchased for the benefit of the respondent only was amply rebutted by the appellant by adducing evidence that the suit property, though purchased in the name of the respondent, was so purchased for the benefit of the appellant and his family. As noted herein earlier, the appellate court as well as the trial court on consideration of all the materials including oral and documentary evidence and on a sound reasoning after considering the pleadings of the parties came to concurrent findings of fact that purchase of the suit property by the appellant in the name of the respondent was benami in nature. Keeping these concurrent findings of fact in our mind which would conclusively prove that the transaction in question was benami in nature, let us now consider whether the appellant was entitled to raise the plea of benami in view of introduction of the Benami Transaction (Prohibition) Act, 1988 ("Act"). Admittedly, the transaction in question was registered on 24th August, 1970. The suit was filed on 5th of July 1984 which was long before coming into force of the Act. It is an admitted position that the written statement in the suit taking plea of benami was also filed by the appellant long before the Act had come into force. Therefore, it was not a case where Section 4(2) of the Act will have a limited operation in the pending suit after Section 4(2) of the Act had come into operation. In this case, the trial court as well as the appellate court concurrently found that although the suit property was purchased in the name of the respondent but the same was purchased for the interest of the appellant. We are therefore of the opinion that even if the presumption under section 3(2) of the Act arose because of purchase of the suit property by the father ( in this case appellant ) in the name of his daughter ( in this case respondent ), that presumption got rebutted as the appellant had successfully succeeded by production of cogent evidence to prove that the suit property was purchased in the benami of the respondent for his own benefit. It is true that the judgment of the trial court was delivered after the Act had come into force but that could not fetter the right of the appellant to take the plea of benami in his defence. Since the Act cannot have any retrospective operation in the facts and circumstances of the present case, we are therefore of the view that the appellant was entitled to raise the plea of benami in the written statement and to show and prove that he was the real owner of the suit property and that the respondent was only his benamidar. It is equally settled that High Court in second appeal is not entitled to interfere with the concurrent findings of fact arrived at by the courts below until and unless it is found that the concurrent findings of fact were perverse and not based on sound reasoning. We ourselves considered the evidence on record as well as the findings of fact arrived at by the two courts below. From such consideration we do not find that the concurrent findings of fact arrived at by the appellate court as well as the trial court were either perverse or without any reason or based on non-consideration of important piece of evidence or admission of some of the parties. We are therefore of the view that the High Court was not justified in interfering with the concurrent findings of fact arrived at by the appellate court as well as the trial court which findings were rendered on consideration of the pleadings as well as the material ( oral and documentary ) evidence on record. Thus, this appeal is allowed. The judgment of the High Court impugned in this Court is set aside and the judgments of the trial court as well as the appellate court are affirmed. The suit filed by the respondent shall stand dismissed. There will be no order as to costs.
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