Power of Attorney
4 articles
A Sale Needs a Sale Deed: Suraj Lamp & Industries v. State of Haryana on GPA Sales and SA/GPA/Will Transfers
An agreement to sell, an irrevocable power of attorney and a will, however carefully assembled, do not add up to a sale. The Supreme Court's 2011 reference judgment remains the starting point for any due-diligence review of a property held on such papers.
7 min readA Registered Power of Attorney, Once Exercised, Cannot Be Undone by Its Own Later Cancellation: Madras High Court on Sections 200–202 of the Contract Act
In C.Rajendran v. P. Arumugam, the Madras High Court held that an agreement of sale executed by a registered power-of-attorney agent binds the principal so long as the power was valid and unrevoked at the time of the agreement, rejecting the principals' argument that a subsequent cancellation of the power, and a disputed reading of its acreage, could defeat a decree for specific performance.
13 min readSupreme Court Clarifies When a Limitation Plea Can Be Tried as a Preliminary Issue in Title Suits
In John Mathew v. Santha Paul, the Supreme Court set aside a decade of rulings on limitation in a suit challenging a power-of-attorney sale deed, holding that Order XIV Rule 2(2) CPC permits a qualifying issue to be tried first only before the court has embarked on a composite trial of all issues — not after evidence has already been led. The Court also left open, for retrial, whether the suit is governed by the three-year period for cancelling an instrument or the twelve-year period for recovering possession.
13 min readGujarat High Court: Calling a Power of Attorney 'Irrevocable' Does Not Make It So
Deciding two second appeals arising from a thirty-year dispute over agricultural land near Gandhinagar, the Gujarat High Court has reaffirmed that an 'irrevocable' power of attorney is irrevocable only if it is coupled with an interest in the property under Section 202 of the Indian Contract Act — and that a sale deed executed by an agent after valid cancellation conveys no title at all, however registered it later becomes.
14 min read