Report No. 57
4.2. Section 66, Civil Procedure Code.-
As regards the first, the relevant section1 in the Civil Procedure Code (so far as is material) provides that no suit shall be maintained against any person claiming title under a purchase certified by the Court, (in such a manner as may be prescribed) on the ground that the purchase was made on behalf of the plaintiff or on behalf of someone through whom the plaintiff claims.
Similar provisions exist for revenue, sales and have a long history. Under Regulation 11 of 1822, the Government was empowered, by sections 19 and 20 to cancel and annul benami purchases made at a sale for arrears of revenue. The next enactment upon the subject is contained in Act 12 of 1841, section 22 whereof provides that 'any suit brought to oust a certified purchaser as aforesaid on the ground that the purchase was made on behalf of another person not the certified purchaser, though by agreement the name of the certified purchaser was used, shall be dismissed with costs'.
It is unnecessary to refer to later versions of this provision. It may be added that we have, in our Report on the Code of Civil Procedure,2 recommended an extension of the principle of this provision so as to prohibit also the pleading of a defence based on 'benami' in such cases. This provision, it may be noted, is confined to sale certificates issued by courts. It does not prohibit 'benami' transactions in general.
1. Section 66(1), Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.
2. 54th Report of the Law Commission (Code of Civil Procedure, 1973), para. 1E.53.
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