Gujarat government came up with a new rule to stop NRG property fraud

Ahmedabad: The state government has brought in checks to prevent the abuse of the ‘power of attorney’ documents, in order to stop fraudulent sales of properties belonging to NRGs.

This month two critical circulars have been issued by the revenue department. An NRG or person living outside the state giving permission to their agents to execute the sale of a property must now submit an additional document stating that they were alive at the time of the sale. The representative could be the third party. According to the rules, the notarized declaration should be sent in a sealed envelope and open only in front of the sub-registrar. 

A senior revenue officer said that the revenue department directed that the declaration must be filed by the NRI from the application date for execution of the sale deed.

There have been numerous instances in which customers purchased NRI-owned properties in Ahmedabad and other cities of Gujarat through agents who possess power of attorney, only to find later others claiming their stakes in the property.

On January 9 and January 10 the superintendent of stamps, Jenu Devan, issued two circulars regarding this. The January 9 circular referenced the Gujarat Registration (Amendment) Regulation 2023. It replaced the relevant rule, filing of “declaration by a power of attorney stating that the principal (owner of the property) is alive”, with “declaration by the principal stating that s/he is alive”.

Revenue official further said, “This means that instead of the power of attorney holder filing a declaration that the NRI owner is alive, the owner has to file a separate declaration and post it in a sealed cover to the sub-registrar”. The declaration should include the date, preferably a day after the filing of the sale deed.

The NRI seller has to state in the separate declaration on a Rs 50 stamp paper that s/he is alive while issuing a power of attorney, have not revoked nor canceled a power of attorney issued, and there are no any legal proceedings or dispute ongoing in any court or tribunal in India regarding the property in question. The revenue officer added that the NRI seller also has to certify that if the transaction is found to be fraudulent, only he/she will be responsible.

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