10/05/2026
Views of our Managing Partner, Mr. Rahul Garg with the senior Journalist Mr. Sugata Ghosh published in The Economic Times today on the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Manjula & Others vs DA Srinivas empowering the Revenue to retroactively apply the Benami Law to pre-2016 transactions.
This decision fundamentally shifts the ground for Benami enforcement in India. By holding the 2016 machinery provisions retrospective, the Court has reopened a vast universe of pre-2016 arrangements agricultural land held through farmers, urban properties parked with employees or relatives, and assets structured to bypass land ceiling, FEMA, or tax laws to attachment and confiscation. It appears that the Income Tax Department's Benami Prohibition Units can now revive dormant matters going back two or three decades, with no limitation period applying. The message for individuals is complex: the property is exposed even if the person is not!
The contrast with Ganpati Dealcom (2022) is sharp. That ruling treated the 2016 Amendment as a single prospective block; Manjula surgically splits it — machinery and procedural provisions apply retrospectively, while enhanced criminal penalties remain prospective under Article 20(1) of the Constitution. After the October 2024 recall of Ganpati Dealcom left a legal vacuum, Manjula appears to fill it decisively in the Revenue's favour and "unfreezes" the Government's power to confiscate property.
Manjula is the operative law today, but the constitutional question remains technically open in Ganpati Dealcom post-recall which may complicate matters further depending on the view that Bench takes, given that Manjula has expressly considered the status of Ganpati.
Notably, the same Bench (Hon'ble Judges J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan) authored the Tiger Global ruling, and the tonal continuity is unmistakable a tough, anti-avoidance posture against clever structuring that costs the exchequer. The Court has also given the Government a strict 8-week timeline to take over the suit properties through an Administrator as per the law.
Cheers,
Team Asire
Asire Consulting LLP
ia
