Amid rising crimes of land grabbing and sky-rocketing market in the realty sector in the city, the local revenue authority has decided to scrutinise all sale deeds based on a power of attorney (PoA). It is a major decision for land owners who fear losing their lands to third parties.
The local authority took the decision last week to put under scanner those sale deeds of land and property based upon PoA after receiving numerous complaints regarding irregularity in such a process.
According to sources, many touts and even land mafia are involved in the malpractice of grabbing land by preparing PoA of the land or property by faking names and signs of the original owner without their knowledge.
In some cases, the land mafia puts properties in dispute by faking entries in government records and laying claim to it before the various revenue forums and courts. The land owners have thus to bow down to the demands, including extortion of money, of such touts.
"We have issued a circular last week as we received many complaints regarding crime based upon PoA. The practice is evident as police complaints have also been filed in such instances," said GD Patel, deputy collector of stamp duty for western area of the city. "We will scrutinise the authenticity of the documents and then register the sale deed as early as possible, so that people will not have to face delays in the registration process."
According to the circular issued after the meeting of local revenue officials on February 16, "all proposed sale deeds will need to be sent to deputy collector for confirmation with an original copy of the PoA."
It further said, "It has come to the notice of the state government that evasion of stamp duty is prevailing in cases of taking possession of property based on PoW and instances of transferring of properties without intimation of the owner is also rising."
Director of Real Estate Studies and Management Academy, NK Patel said "We welcome this step as it will really be a great help in curbing illegal acts of land grabbing and stamp duty thefts in the realty sector. This will also bring in a lot of transparency in transactions."
The government also needs to wisely publish it and rightly communicate its importance to people. It should add certain proofs like pan-card number of the person having PoA, residence proof and two witnesses for identification of the person. Because it will greatly reduce fraud cases, added Patel.
Lawyers practicing in revenue and property have expressed mixed reactions over the development.
"It is indeed a welcome decision by the revenue authority and it is a respite to property holders also that third persons can't claim their property overnight," said Paresh Jani, senior solicitor based in the city.
Another lawyer, Deval Modi said, "It is nothing but a waste of time. Genuine persons will have to suffer from this move for early dealings of their property. It can't stop any malpractice," Rasul Shaikh, a sale deed writer said.
He added, “The government has made many provisions including affixing photographs of parties and thumb impressions. The stamp duty office already has a high backlog of cases and this will add more burdan on them. As a result, genuine persons will have to wait long to register the sale deed of their properties.”
