One PAN, ₹50,000-cr transactions and 25000 properties under IT scanner: What happened at Gurugram’s Badshahpur tehsil?

An Income Tax Department survey has unearthed discrepancies in records of some 25,000 properties, including the alleged use of the same PAN number in multiple registrations over two years, PTI reported citing an official.

High-value property transactions of around ₹55,000 crore in Gurugram's Badshahpur tehsil are now under the scanner and the I-T Department, Chandigarh, has constituted a seven-member team to probe records at the Badshahpur tehsil office, the official added.

According to I-T dept officials, they failed receive information about transactions worth ₹15,000 crore involving approximately 12,000 properties, which led to examination of records. This led to them finding about 25,000 properties had either not been reported to the department or incorrect PAN numbers had been recorded.

“Irregularities involving transactions worth approximately ₹55,000 crore linked to these properties have come to light. The department is reconciling the records to establish the actual extent of the discrepancies,” officials said.

As part of the probe, roles of tehsildars and naib tehsildars are also being scrutinised as the team seeks to establish why information about high-value property transactions did not reach the I-T dept and how PAN numbers were verified during the registration process.

“However, no evidence establishing the involvement of any official in the irregularities has emerged so far,” officials said.

The report cited officials saying that the I-T dept received a Statement of Financial Transactions (SFT) about property transactions exceeding ₹30 lakh. They added that the Haryana government also provided SFT data up to May 2026, but the information has been found to lack complete transparency.

According to departmental information, 140 tehsildars submitted their SFTs ahead of schedule by Thursday, while 120 submitted their reports by the deadline. The dept emphasised the need for pending reports to be filed transparently and discrepancies in property registration records to be rectified.

The report added that the investigative team is looking into the actual nature of the irregularities. “…whether this resulted from record-keeping errors or deliberate misconduct, will become clear only after the probe is completed,” the official said.

A senior administrative officer, meanwhile, said it was impossible for the same PAN number to have been used in thousands of property registrations, suggesting that the discrepancy could have resulted from a technical glitch at the computer or portal level. “It might be some technical glitch only on computer or portal level,” the officer said.

According to Dinkar Sharma, Company Secretary and Partner at Jotwani Associates, the income-tax law does not limit the number of properties that a person can buy, own or register in the same PAN. “It is possible for an individual to own multiple residential or commercial properties, as long as the transactions are bona fide and the source of funds used for the purchase is explainable,” he said.

On the specific case in Gurugram, Sharma added, “Authorities would have to verify whether the PAN belongs to the actual buyers, if it was used correctly in the registration records, and if the transactions can be linked to the persons concerned. If a PAN has been misused or duplicated in the records or entered incorrectly, it can become difficult to identify the real buyers and to verify the source of funds.”

He clarified that the total number of property transactions made through a particular PAN cannot be said to be indicative of tax evasion. “The actual point here is whether the transaction was genuine, the names of the seller and buyer were recorded correctly, and the source of the amount spent in buying the properties could be explained,” Sharma added.

Amit Ganatra, Executive Director at Khaitan & Co concurred, “There is no specific numerical limit under the Indian Income tax Act / Rules on how many properties a person can buy or register using the same PAN. Any person can purchase multiple residential, commercial, or other properties under his PAN provided source of funds is legitimate and genuine and all the applicable rules are complied. Irrespective of number of properties held, an individual can show only two properties as “self-occupied property” and balance properties would have to be considered as “deemed to be let out” for income tax purposes.”

(With inputs from PTI)

• The Income Tax Department is examining discrepancies in about 25,000 property records linked to transactions worth approximately ₹55,000 crore.
• The probe is looking into missing transaction disclosures, incorrect PAN entries and how property-registration data was reported and verified.
• Officials have not established whether the discrepancies resulted from record-keeping errors, a technical glitch or deliberate misconduct.
• There is no numerical limit on how many properties a person can buy under one PAN; the key issues are genuine transactions and an explainable source of funds.

Jocelyn Fernandes

Jocelyn Fernandes is a journalist and editor with nearly 13 years of experience covering the business, corporate, economy and markets beats in news.<br> As chief content producer for around three years at Livemint (Hindustan Times), Jocelyn publishes breaking stories, explainers, features and live blogs on a range of business and economy topics, including the Budget, corporate developments, stock markets, income tax, money and personal finance, cryptocurrency, government policy, impact of US tariffs, international developments and more.<br> Jocelyn's writing philosophy is focused on delivering news in an accurate and accessible format for readers. She thus focuses her news coverage on explainers and FAQs in order to breakdown business, corporate, economic, and policy topics that are of importance to everyday readers.<br> She holds a Bachelors in Mass Media (BMM) and Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) in Journalism and Communication and has previously written for online business and markets news site Moneycontrol (Network18), Business-to-business (B2B) trade publications — the industry magazines Power Today and Solar Today (ASAPP Media), and the national news agency United News of India (UNI).<br> Outside of work, Jocelyn keeps up-to-date with local and international news, enjoys reading fiction books, novels and short stories, and enjoys movies, travelling and art. <br> She can be found on X and LinkedIn, and reached by email: <a href="jocelyn.fernandes@htdigital.in">jocelyn.fernandes@htdigital.in</a> <br> X/ Twitter handle: <a href="https://x.com/scribeJocelyn">@scribeJocelyn</a> <br> LinkedIn: <a href="https://in.linkedin.com/in/jocelyn-fernandes-journalist">LinkedIn</a>

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