Cabinet takes steps to speed up disposal of benami cases
Benami transaction refers to transactions made in a fictitious name, or the owner is not aware of the ownership of the property.
New Delhi: The government on Wednesday approved setting up of appellate tribunal and adjudicating authority for speedy disposal of cases related to benami transactions.
The decision was taken at the cabinet chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi, said law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad at press briefing.
Earlier this month, the government had notified sessions courts in 34 states and Union Territories, which will act as special courts for trial of offences under the benami transaction law.
Benami transaction refers to transactions made in a fictitious name, or the owner is not aware of the ownership of the property, or the person paying for the property is not traceable. As per an official release, the adjudicating authority and appellate tribunal will be based in NCT of Delhi.
Benches of adjudicating authority may sit in Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai, and the necessary notification in this regard will be issued after consultation with the chairperson of the proposed adjudicating authority.
“The approval will result in effective and better administration of cases referred to the adjudicating authority and speedy disposal of appeals filed against the order of the adjudicating authority before the appellate tribunal,” the release said.
The appointment of the adjudicating authority, it added, would provide first stage review of administrative action under the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act (PBPT) Act.
Establishment of the proposed appellate tribunal would provide an appellate mechanism for the order passed by the adjudicating authority under the PBPT Act.
The rules and all the provisions of the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act came into force on November 1, 2016. After coming into effect, the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988, was renamed as the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988.
The government also approved an MoU between India and Singapore to constitute a joint working group (JWG) on financial technology (fintech). As per the pact, both countries will improve their regulatory connect to exchange best practices by sharing experience on policies and regulations related to fintech, an official statement said.
The JWG will encourage collaboration of entrepreneurs and startups of both countries and deveop fintech solutions for business/ financial sectors. The MoU will benefit both countries to excel in fields of development of application programming interfaces (APls), regulatory sandbox, security in payment and digital cash flow.
The collaboration will also lead to integration of Ru Pay-Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS), UPI-FAST payment link, Aadhaar Stack and e-KYC in Asean region and cooperation on regulations, solutions for financial markets and insurance sector, it said.
The cabinet also approved a cooperation agreement signed among BRICS nations in the social and labour sector. It has given its ex-post facto approval for the memorandum of understanding (MoU) among Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa regarding cooperation in the social and labour sphere, an official release said.
The MoU was signed on August 3, 2018 at BRICS labour and employment ministers meeting held under the South African presidency in Durban, South Africa.