The Madhya Pradesh High Court in W.P. No. 3957/2019 declined to interfere with the Show-Cause Notices (SCNs) issued and upheld the retrospective application of the Benami Law.
The petitioners have called in question the legality, validity and propriety of the impugned SCN dated 10.01.2019 and Provisional Attachment Order. It has been contended that during the pendency of this case, the respondents in order to pass an order under Section 24 of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions, 1988 (‘PBPT’) urged that the Initiating Authority must have reasons to believe that on the basis of material in his possession any person is a benamidar in respect of a property. In order to ‘have reasons’, he has to independently, impartially and objectively form his own opinion and cannot be influenced by any opinion collected by any other authority. Hence, the influence of opinion of the Authority hence is an example of non-application of mind.
Another issue of whether the PBPT shall have retrospective application has to be decided in the present petition in light of the order of lower authority holding that the Act shall have retrospective application.
The Division Bench constituting of Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Anjuli Palo held that it cannot be said that the SCNs are issued without the authority of law. As regarding retrospective application, the DB has cited recent Judgement of CG HC and mentioned that no interference is warranted.
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