What is the procedure for the adjudication before the Adjudicating Authority?

Ans. Section 26 provides for the adjudication hearing before Adjudicating Authority, culminating in an adjudication order holding the property/case referred by IO to be benami property or not and confirming or revoking IO's provisional attachment.

The procedure for adjudication hearings under Section 26, in a nutshell, is as follows:

(a)  Receipt of reference under Section 24(5) from IO in respect of any alleged benami property;

(b)  Where in the course of proceedings before it, the Adjudicating Authority has reason to believe that a property, other than a prop­erty referred to it by the IO is benami property, it shall provisionally attach the property, and the property shall be deemed to be a property referred to it on the date of receipt of the reference under Section 24(5);

(c)   The Adjudicating Authority may, at any stage of the proceedings, either on the application of any party, or suo motu, strike out the name of any party improperly joined or add the name of any person whose presence before the Adjudicating Authority may be necessary to enable him to adjudicate upon and settle all the questions involved in the reference;

(d) Notice to be issued by Adjudicating Authority under Section 26(1) within 30 days of receiving a reference from IO;

(e) Notice should allow not less than 30 days for compliance with its requirement;

(f) The Adjudicating Authority shall consider the reply, if any, to the notice issued;

(g) The Adjudicating Authority may make or cause to be made such inquiries and calling for such reports or evidence as Adjudicating Authority deems fit;

(h) The Adjudicating Authority shall take into account all relevant materials;

(i) The Adjudicating Authority shall provide an opportunity of being heard to the person specified as a Benamidar in the notice, the Initiating Officer, and any other person who claims to be the owner of the property;

(j) Where the Adjudicating Authority is satisfied that some part of the properties in respect of which reference has been made to him is benami property, but is not able to specifically identify such part, he shall record a finding to the best of his judgment as to which part of the properties is held benami;

(k) The Adjudicating Authority shall pass an order under Section 26(3):

(i) holding the property not to be a benami property and revoking the attachment order; or

(ii) holding the property to be a benami property and confirming the attachment order, in all other cases.

(l) No order under Section 26(3) shall be passed after the expiry of one year from the end of the month in which the reference from IO is received under Section 24(5).​