G. Bahadur v. K. Visakh ACIT (2018) 259 Taxman 556 (PBPTA-AT)

S. 3 : Prohibiton of benami transaction-Payment of advance salary by employer to its employee to defeat purpose of demonetisation didn’t come under purview of Benami Transaction. [S.24, 46 ]

Appellant was employed in a College run by a Trust .He received Rs. 50 thousand as advance salary from said Trust. Appellant deposited entire amount in his bank account, which was subsequently withdrawn by him and consumed for his personal purposes .Initiating Officer (I.O) assumed that Chairman of said Trust had forced employees to distribute, deposit and retain his own money in demonetized currency in guise of loan received, which had to be repaid after some time in new currency. I.O, thus, held Chairman of college as beneficial owner and appellant as benamidar and passed order provisionally attaching salary bank account of appellant. However, according to appellant alleged benami property (i.e. cash) did not exist as he had deposited entire amount in his bank account which was subsequently withdrawn and used by him, much before date of attachment of salary account. Tribunal held that the Authorities had purely gone on premise that cash was transferred from one person to another with an object to defeat demonetization, but same was insufficient to establish a benami transaction.