Bank A/c attachment quashed under Benami law, cash receipts during demonetisation not benami property

Tribunal for Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act (PBPT) quashes the provisional attachment of bank accounts of appellants (lecturers in a  College run by an Educational Trust) under the Benami law;  Pursuant to search action u/s. 132 of the Income-tax Act  on the Trust, it was found that the appellants had received certain cash as advance salary on November 14, 2016 (i.e during the demonetization period), Revenue had held the Trust’s Chairman as the beneficial owner and appellant-employees as benamidars thereafter attaching their salary bank accounts up to the value of the alleged “benami” property; Firstly, Tribunal holds that the advance-salary received by appellants would have to be treated as earned money and disclosed income, observes that there is no material on record to show that the lecturers owned the money illegitimately; Further Tribunal holds that disclosure of receipt in cash in the sworn statements by the lecturer-appellants is insufficient to construe the existence of a “benami” transaction, rules that the existence of the “benami” transaction has to be proved by the authorities; Further remarks that once the money has already been returned or adjusted against their salaries, “the question of Appellant depositing any amount out of it in his bank account did not arise.”