Amendment of section 26.
174. In section 26 of the principal Act, in sub-section (7), with effect from the 1st day of September, 2019, the following Explanation shall be inserted, namely:--
“Explanation.-For the purposes of this sub-section, in computing the period of limitation, the period during which the proceeding is stayed by an order or injunction of any court shall be excluded:
Provided that where immediately after the exclusion of the aforesaid period, the period of limitation available to the Adjudicating Authority for passing order is less than sixty days, such remaining period shall be deemed to be extended to sixty days.”.
Notes on Clauses:
Clauses 172 to 176 of the Bill seek to amend the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988.
Section 23 of the said Act provides that the Initiating Officer, after obtaining prior approval of the Approving Authority, shall have power to conduct or cause to be conducted any inquiry or investigation in respect of any person, place, property, assets, documents, books of account or other documents, in respect of any other relevant matters under this Act.
It is proposed to amend the said section so as to clarify that nothing contained in this section shall apply and shall be deemed to have ever applied where a notice under sub-section (1) of section 24 has been issued by the Initiating Officer.
This amendment will take effect retrospectively from 1st day of November, 2016.
Section 24 of the said Act provides that where the Initiating Officer is of the opinion that the person in possession of the property held benami may alienate the property during the period specified in the notice, he may, with the previous approval of the Approving Authority, by order in writing, attach provisionally the property in the manner as may be prescribed, for a period not exceeding ninety days from the date of issue of notice under sub-section (1) and Initiating Officer shall pass an order within a period of ninety days from the date of issue of notice under sub-section (1).
It is proposed to amend sub-section (3) of the said section so as to provide that instead of attaching the property for a period of ninety days from the date of notice, the said property may be attached for a period of ninety days from the last day of the month in which notice was issued.
It is further proposed to amend sub-section (4) of the said section so as to provide that instead of passing an order within a period of ninety days from the date of issue of notice under sub-section (1), the said order shall be passed from the last date of the month in which notice under sub-section (1) was issued.
It is also proposed to amend the said section so as to exclude the time on account of stay granted by any court from the period of time provided under sub-section (5) to refer the order passed under sub-section (4) within fifteen days from the date of attachment to the Adjudicating Authority and that if after exclusion of the period of stay if the remaining period is less than seven days, the remaining period shall be deemed to extend to seven days.
Sub-section (7) of section 26 of the said Act does not provide that in computing the period of one year for passing an order the period during which the proceeding is stayed by an order or injunction of any court shall be excluded.
It is proposed to amend the said sub-section so as to provide that in computing the period of one year for passing an order, the period during which the proceeding is stayed by an order or injunction of any court is excluded. It is also proposed that if after exclusion of the period of stay if the remaining period is less than sixty days, the remaining period shall be deemed to extend to sixty days.
It is also proposed to insert new sections 54A and 54B in the said Act.
Sub-section (1) of the proposed new section 54A provides that the person shall pay a penalty of twenty-five thousand rupees for each failure to comply with summons under sub-section (1) of section 19; or to furnish information which he was required to furnish under section 21.
Sub-section (2) of the said section provides for the authority who shall impose penalty.
Sub-section (3) of the said section provides that no penalty shall be imposed without affording an opportunity of being heard to the person in respect of whom penalty is sought to be imposed.
The proviso to the said sub-section provides that no penalty shall be imposed if such person proves that there were good and sufficient reasons for the contravention.
The proposed new section 54B provides that the entries in the records or other documents in the custody of an authority shall be admitted in evidence in any proceedings for the prosecution of any person for an offence under section 3 or Chapter VII, and all such entries may be proved either by the production of the records or other documents in the custody of the authority containing such entries, or by the production of a copy of the entries certified by the authority having custody of the records or other documents under its signature and stating that it is a true copy of the original entries and that such original entries are contained in the records or other documents in its custody.
It is also proposed to amend section 55 of the said Act so as to provide that no prosecution shall be instituted against any person in respect of any offence under sections 3, 53 or section 54 without the previous sanction of the Board.
It is further proposed to insert an Explanation to the said section so as to define the expression “competent authority”.
These amendments will take effect from 1st September, 2019.
