Summary
A partition decree was modified because the plaintiffs failed to prove that properties standing in the wife’s name were benami acquisitions from ancestral-property sale proceeds. The courts below wrongly shifted the burden to her. Part-payment or purchase of stamp papers by her husband was not conclusive; intention and surrounding circumstances mattered. The purchases preceded the ancestral sale relied on. Partition relief remained only for admitted ancestral items 1 and 3.
Issues
- Whether the plaintiffs proved that properties registered in the wife’s name were benami or joint-family acquisitions.
- Whether the release deed and the 2016 statutory amendment altered the conclusion.
Held
- The person asserting benami ownership bears the burden of definite legal proof. Source of money is one relevant factor alongside intention, possession, motive, relationship, custody of deeds and subsequent conduct; the lower courts incorrectly reversed the burden. (¶ 8–8.4)
- The husband’s contribution to part of one purchase and purchase of stamp papers for another did not establish benami ownership. The daughter’s release expressly sought to avoid litigation rather than acknowledge a subsisting share; the wife’s will and revocation supported her assertion of ownership. (¶ 9–9.4)
- The pleaded case relied on proceeds from sale of ancestral property, not income from it. The disputed purchases preceded that sale and therefore could not have been financed by those proceeds. (¶¶ 7.1, 10)
- The argument based on the 2016 omission of the earlier statutory presumption was rejected on non-retrospectivity grounds. Independently, the plaintiffs had failed to prove their benami case. (¶ 12)
- Items 1 and 3 were admitted ancestral properties. The plaintiffs had no share in the other properties, which belonged to the wife as self-acquired property. (¶ 12.1–13)
Result
Appeal partly allowed. Partition decree and findings granting plaintiffs three-fourths shares set aside for properties other than items 1 and 3; preliminary decree to be modified accordingly. Relief concerning admitted ancestral items 1 and 3 preserved. No costs.