Any transaction in which property is transferred to one person for a consideration paid or provided by another person is benami.

A transaction in which the purchase is made in the name of someone other than the real purchaser. It is very much the habit in Bangladesh to make purchases in the names of others, and, from whatever cause or causes the practice may have arisen, it has existed for a series of years, and these transactions are known as “Benami Transactions”.

Certain ingredients of benami transaction like motive and source of money for kabala are required to prove it. Onus lies on him who asserts that the transaction is benami one. [Mahmudul Huq vs. Mst. Golap Mia, 41 DLR 314]

In a benami transaction real owner of a property allows it to appear in the name of an ostensible owner, himself remaining the beneficiary of the property. The practice of benami developed in the Indian sub-continent long before its conquest by the Muslims and during the Muslim rule the practice of benami received full recognition from the authorities and the Courts as well. That the practice of benami was widely practiced throughout the Sub-continent is evident from the early history of the East India Company. [Nurjahan Begum, wife of Mahmudur Rahman Vs. Mahmudur Rahman Mullick (1982) 34 DLR (AD) 61]