General Power of Attorney

GENERAL POWER OF ATTORNEY BY THIS GENERAL POWER OF ATTORNEY executed at [place_of_execution] on [execution_date] I, [principal_name], [principal_relation] of [principal_father_name], residing at [principal_address], hereinafter referred to as "the PRINCIPAL", DO HEREBY NOMINATE, CONSTITUTE AND APPOINT [attorney_name], being my [attorney_relationship], residing at [attorney_address], hereinafter referred to as "the ATTORNEY", to be my true and lawful attorney, to act for me, in my name, and on my behalf, in respect of the matters set out below. 1. REASON FOR APPOINTMENT I am unable to attend personally to the affairs described in this instrument, and I therefore consider it necessary and expedient to appoint the Attorney to act on my behalf. 2. SCOPE This Power of Attorney applies to the following property and affairs: [property_or_scope] 3. POWERS GRANTED The Attorney is authorised to do the following acts and things on my behalf: [powers_granted] 4. INCIDENTAL POWERS The Attorney is further authorised to sign, execute, present, submit and receive all applications, forms, declarations, receipts, acknowledgments and correspondence, to appear before any authority, office or officer, and to do all such incidental acts as are reasonably necessary to give effect to the powers expressly granted above. 5. LIMITS ON AUTHORITY 5.1 The Attorney shall act strictly within the scope of the powers granted, and shall not exceed them. 5.2 The Attorney shall not delegate or sub-delegate these powers to any other person without my prior written consent. 5.3 The Attorney shall act at all times in good faith and in my best interests, and shall not use these powers for the Attorney's own benefit or to my detriment. 5.4 The Attorney shall maintain proper accounts of all transactions carried out under this authority and shall render them to me on demand. 6. RATIFICATION I hereby agree to ratify and confirm all lawful acts done by the Attorney within the scope of the powers granted, and such acts shall be binding on me as though done by me personally. 7. DURATION AND REVOCATION 7.1 This Power of Attorney takes effect from [execution_date] and shall remain in force until [valid_until], or until revoked by me in writing, whichever is earlier. 7.2 I may revoke this Power of Attorney at any time by written notice to the Attorney, and by informing any authority or person who has acted or may act upon it. 7.3 This Power of Attorney shall stand automatically revoked upon my death, or upon my being adjudged of unsound mind or insolvent, in accordance with law. 8. EXECUTION FORMALITIES 8.1 This instrument is executed under the Powers of Attorney Act, 1882. 8.2 Where the Attorney is authorised to present any document for registration on my behalf, this Power of Attorney must be authenticated in the manner required by Section 33 of the Registration Act, 1908. 8.3 Stamp duty on a Power of Attorney is levied at rates prescribed by the State concerned and varies between States. Where the instrument confers authority to sell immovable property, several States levy duty at or near conveyance rates; the applicable rate should be confirmed locally before execution. 8.4 It is advisable that this instrument be notarised, and, where it relates to immovable property, registered with the jurisdictional Sub-Registrar. IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have signed this General Power of Attorney on the day, month and year first above written, in the presence of the witnesses named below. PRINCIPAL [principal_name] I accept the appointment and undertake to act within the powers granted. ATTORNEY [attorney_name] WITNESSES 1. Name: ______________________ Signature: ______________ Address: ______________ 2. Name: ______________________ Signature: ______________ Address: ______________ ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── A POWER OF ATTORNEY CANNOT BE USED TO SELL PROPERTY This is the most consequential thing to understand before executing this document, and it is widely misunderstood in India. In Suraj Lamp & Industries (P) Ltd. v. State of Haryana (2011) the Supreme Court held that transactions of the nature of "GPA sales" or "SA/GPA/Will transfers" DO NOT CONVEY TITLE, do not amount to a transfer, and can never be a recognised or valid mode of transferring immovable property. The Court reaffirmed this in M.S. Ananthamurthy v. J. Manjula (February 2025) and again in Ramesh Chand v. Suresh Chand (September 2025). What that means in practice: 1. Immovable property can be transferred ONLY by a duly stamped and registered deed of conveyance — a sale deed — under Section 54 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 and the Registration Act, 1908. Without one, no right, title or interest passes. 2. A power of attorney only AUTHORISES the agent to act on the owner's behalf. It does not make the agent the owner. Even an IRREVOCABLE power of attorney does not transfer title. 3. If you are buying property and are being offered a "GPA sale" — typically an agreement to sell, plus a general power of attorney, plus a will — you are being offered no ownership at all. If the seller later dies, refuses to complete, or sells the same property to someone else by a registered deed, you have virtually no remedy. 4. The Supreme Court did not retrospectively invalidate the lakhs of such transactions already done, but they cannot be relied upon as proof of title. No comprehensive regularisation has followed. If you hold property this way, take advice about curing it through a proper registered conveyance. WHAT THIS DOES NOT AFFECT: the Court expressly preserved genuine powers of attorney granted for management or convenience, including within families. A power of attorney remains a perfectly proper instrument for its actual purpose — managing property while you are abroad or unwell, appearing before authorities, operating accounts, completing a sale on your own behalf as owner. Nothing above prevents that. What it cannot do is substitute for the conveyance itself. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── STAMP DUTY — THE QUESTION THAT DECIDES THE COST Stamp duty on a power of attorney is fixed by the State in which it is executed, but in every State the rate turns on the same two questions, and getting them wrong is expensive: 1. WHO is the attorney — a family member, or someone else? 2. Does CONSIDERATION pass — is money changing hands? WHERE THE POWER IS GIVEN TO A CLOSE FAMILY MEMBER AND NO CONSIDERATION PASSES, duty is nominal — commonly a few hundred rupees. This is the ordinary case: a parent authorising a child, or a spouse authorising a spouse, to manage or deal with property. WHERE THE POWER AUTHORISES SALE TO A NON-RELATIVE, OR WHERE CONSIDERATION PASSES, the instrument is treated as a CONVEYANCE. Duty is then charged AD VALOREM at sale deed rates — commonly in the range of five to seven per cent of the circle rate or market value, depending on the State. On a property of Rs 80 lakh that is the difference between a few hundred rupees and several lakhs. It is not an anomaly or a penalty: States levy it precisely to remove the cost advantage that drove GPA sales for decades, and it is the fiscal counterpart of the Supreme Court's decision in Suraj Lamp. SO: DO NOT ASSUME A POWER OF ATTORNEY IS THE CHEAP OPTION. If the substance of what you are doing is a sale to someone outside the family, the duty will follow the substance rather than the label on the document. STATES ARE TIGHTENING THIS, NOT RELAXING IT. Uttar Pradesh brought in a rule under which a power of attorney authorising sale to someone outside the family attracts stamp duty computed on the circle rate, introduced specifically because builders were using POAs registered in one district to avoid duty. Delhi is reported to have restricted direct registration of a non-blood-relative GPA, referring it instead to the Collector of Stamps to adjudicate whether full sale-deed duty applies. That Delhi change is recent and I have seen it in only one source — treat it as a reason to ask rather than as settled law. CONFIRM THE RATE WITH THE JURISDICTIONAL SUB-REGISTRAR BEFORE EXECUTION. Rates and the definition of "family" both vary by State, and a POA stamped at the nominal rate when the ad-valorem rate applied is not merely under-stamped — it may be refused registration, and it cannot be relied upon in the transaction it was drawn for. REGISTRATION of a power of attorney relating to immovable property is strongly advisable, and authentication under Section 33 of the Registration Act, 1908 is MANDATORY where the attorney will present documents for registration.