Challenge To Constitutional Validity Cannot Be Adjudicated Upon In Absence Of Lis & Contest Between Parties: SC Recalls Its 2022 Judgment On Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act
The Supreme Court observed that a challenge to the constitutional validity of a statutory provision cannot be adjudicated upon in the absence of a lis and contest between the parties.
The Court was hearing a Review Petition filed by the Union of India seeking a Review of the judgment of a three-judge Bench of the Court in Union of India and Another v Ganpati Dealcom Private Ltd.
The bench of Chief Justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Justice Manoj Misra observed, “…challenge to the constitutional validity of a statutory provision cannot be adjudicated upon in the absence of a lis and contest between the parties.”
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for the Appellant and Senior Advocate Ajay Vohra appeared for the Respondent.
The question before the Court was whether the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988 as amended by the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016 has a prospective effect.
The Supreme Court noted that the Court had earlier declared Section 3(2) of the unamended provisions of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act 1988 as unconstitutional for being manifestly arbitrary and as violative of Article 20(1) of the Constitution. It also noted that the provisions of Section 5 of the unamended Act, prior to the Amendment of 2016, have been declared to be unconstitutional on the ground that they are manifestly arbitrary.
The Court further noted that the issue of constitutional validity was not squarely addressed in the judgment.
Accordingly, the Court allowed the Review Petition and restored the Civil Appeal.
Finally, the Court disposed of the Petition.
Cause Title: Union of India v. M/s Ganpati Dealcom Pvt Ltd (Neutral Citation: 2024 INSC 799)
Appellant: SG Tushar Mehta, ASG Suryaprakash V Raju, AOR Raj Bahadur Yadav Advocates Vikramjit Bannerjee, Siddharth Sinha, Zoheb Hussain, S A Haseeb, Aakansha Kaul, Bhuvan Mishra, Ritwiz Rishabh and Kanu Agarwal
Respondent: Senior Advocates Ajay Vohra, Manisha T Karia, AOR Ankit Anandraj Shah, Iyer Shruti Gopal, Pai Amit, Advocates Aniket, Bhoomija Verma, Abhimanyu Singh, Shantanu Singh, Ravi Sehgal, Deepin Deepak Sahni, Ananya Arora, Shreya Gupta and Anandh K
