Prohibition of benami transactions – Section 3(2) of the unamended 1988 Act is declared as unconstitutional for being manifestly arbitrary – Accordingly, Section 3(2) of the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016 is also unconstitutional as it is violative of Article 20(1) of the Constitution – Section 3 (criminal provision) read with Section 2(a) and Section 5 (confiscation proceedings) of the 1988 Act are overly broad, disproportionately harsh, and operate without adequate safeguards in place. Such provisions were still-born law and never utilized in the first place – In this light, this Court finds that Sections 3 and 5 of the 1988 Act were unconstitutional from their inception
SUPREME COURT OF INDIA FULL BENCH UNION OF INDIA AND ANOTHER — Appellant Vs. M/S. GANPATI DEALCOM PVT. LTD. — Respondent ( Before : N.V. Ramana, CJI., Krishna Murari and…

