ജനറൽ പവർ ഓഫ് അറ്റോർണി

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.

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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: a fixed amount that in most States runs from a few hundred to a few thousand 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. In 2023 Uttar Pradesh decided that a power of attorney authorising sale to someone outside the family attracts stamp duty computed on the circle rate of the property, while a power of attorney in favour of a close blood relative carries a fixed duty. The change was made because builders were taking powers of attorney from landowners at nominal cost and selling the land without a sale deed. In July 2026 the Delhi Government directed that a GPA in favour of anyone other than a parent, spouse, child or sibling is not to be registered directly by the Sub-Registrar: it must first be referred to the Collector of Stamps, who decides by a written order what duty is payable, and it is registered only after that order is complied with. These are administrative directions and can change, so ask the Sub-Registrar what applies on the day you execute.

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.