Areas of Jurisdiction for Competent Authorities under Prohibition of Benami Act, 1988

The government empowered under section 7 of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act 1988 as amended by Finance Act, 2021, allocated the areas of jurisdiction among the Competent Authorities authorized under sub-section (1) of section 5 of the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act, 1976 for the purpose of the said Act. 

Jurisdictions are as below:

S.  No.	Name of Competent   Authority		Jurisdiction
1.	Competent Authority Kolkata		ll the cases referred by Income Tax Authorities* exercising the powers and performing the functions under the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988 having headquarters at Kolkata, Bhubaneshwar, Patna, Guwahati.
2.	Competent Authority Chennai		All the cases referred by Income Tax Authorities* exercising the powers and performing the functions under the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988 having headquarters at Bengaluru, Chennai, Kochi, Hyderabad, Panaji.
3.	Competent Authority New Delhi		All the cases referred by Income Tax Authorities* exercising the powers and performing the functions under the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988 having headquarters at Delhi, Bhopal, Raipur, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kanpur.
4.	Competent Authority   Mumbai		All the cases referred by Income Tax Authorities* exercising the powers and performing the functions under the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988 having headquarters at Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Pune, Nagpur.

* The territorial area wise jurisdiction of the respective Income Tax Authorities in this regard will be same as provided for in CBDT Notification No 40/2017/F. No. 173/429/2016-ITA-I dated 18-05-2017 [S.O. 1621(E)] published in Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (ii) of the Gazette of India, Extraordinary.

The work performed by the Competent Authorities authorized under sub-section (1) of section 5 of the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act, 1976 (13 of 1976) in exercise of powers conferred under section 7 of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act 1988 will be in addition to the work already being performed by the Competent Authorities.

Source: Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue) (Competent Authority Cell)