What a power of attorney can lawfully do for a Delhi property after the Supreme Court killed the “GPA sale” — the GPA vs SPA choice, registration and stamping rules, the consulate-and-three-months procedure every NRI must know, and how buyers should verify a seller’s POA.
Yes — as an instrument of authority, never as an instrument of ownership. A properly executed power of attorney for property in Delhi lets your attorney manage, rent, litigate over, or even execute and register documents for your property on your behalf. What it cannot do — since the Supreme Court’s Suraj Lamp ruling — is transfer ownership itself: a “GPA sale” conveys nothing. For property powers, Delhi practice requires the POA to be registered or attested before the sub-registrar; NRIs execute theirs before the Indian consulate (or get it apostilled), and it must then be stamped in India within 3 months of receipt to be usable here.
Nearly every South Delhi transaction touches a power of attorney somewhere — the NRI seller in Dubai, the elderly owner whose son attends the registry, the landlord abroad whose brother signs the rent agreements. Used correctly, the POA is what keeps this market moving across continents. Used as a substitute for a sale deed, it is the single largest source of broken titles we see. This guide covers both edges — and the exact procedure for the NRI POA, which is where most mistakes happen.
| Question | General POA (GPA) | Special POA (SPA) |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Broad authority over defined affairs/property — manage, lease, represent, sign | One defined act — e.g. “execute and present the sale deed for Property X for registration” |
| Risk if misused | High — broad words invite broad mischief | Low — the authority dies with the act |
| Formalities in Delhi | Executed on stamp paper, attested/registered before the sub-registrar with ID and witnesses; a POA authorising execution of registrable documents should itself be registered | |
| Typical use | NRI owner appointing a parent/sibling to manage and rent the floor long-term | Completing one sale, one registration, one court appearance |
| Our advice | Grant the narrowest instrument that does the job — an SPA for a transaction, a tightly drafted GPA only for genuine ongoing management, ideally to family | |
The stamping logic reinforces the same discipline: a routine POA to family for genuine authority carries nominal Delhi stamp duty, but a POA granting power to sell to a non-relative, or given for consideration, is treated at law like the conveyance it is trying to be — and charged accordingly. That rule exists precisely to bury the “GPA sale”, whose afterlife our sale deed vs GPA guide dissects. If someone offers you a property “on GPA” at a discount, the discount is the price of not owning it.
Have your Delhi lawyer draft the GPA/SPA with the property schedule and precise powers — then carry or courier it unsigned. Photographs and passport details of both executant and attorney go on the document.
Sign before the consular officer, who attests it — the gold-standard route, accepted without argument in Delhi. In Hague Convention countries, notarisation plus apostille is the alternative.
Under Section 18 of the Indian Stamp Act, a foreign-executed instrument must be stamped within three months of first being received in India — done through the Collector of Stamps in Delhi. Miss the window and the document needs curing before any registrar will act on it. Diarise the receipt date.
The attorney presents the original POA at the sub-registrar for the sale deed, rent agreements, or bank formalities. Registrars in Delhi verify consular attestation and may seek confirmation the executant is alive and the POA unrevoked on the date of use.
A POA is revocable (unless coupled with interest) — by a registered revocation deed, notice to the attorney and to those dealing with them. It ends automatically on the executant’s death; transactions signed after either event are void.
When the person across the table signs as “attorney for the owner”, your diligence doubles. Verify: the original POA (not a photocopy), its registration or consular attestation, that its schedule covers this property and its words cover selling and presenting for registration, that the executant is alive and hasn’t revoked (a recent video call with the owner is now standard practice on serious deals, and sale proceeds should flow to the owner’s account, not the attorney’s), and that the underlying title chain is clean, per our buying checklist. TDS follows the owner, not the attorney — if the owner is an NRI, the Section 195 regime in our TDS guide applies no matter who signs.
First, the stale foreign POA — executed abroad years ago, never stamped within the 3-month window, produced at the registry as if time hadn’t passed. Second, the dead man’s POA — used after the executant’s death, sometimes innocently by family who assume authority survives. It doesn’t: death revokes a POA instantly, and the property then moves only through succession. Any deed signed on either instrument is a defect that surfaces at the worst possible time — the next sale.
A power of attorney moves signatures across oceans. It was never meant to move ownership across a table.
A duly authorised attorney can sign and register the sale deed on the owner’s behalf — that is lawful agency. What is invalid is treating the POA itself as the sale: ownership passes only through a registered sale deed, with the owner as the transferor.
In Delhi practice, a POA dealing with immovable property — certainly one authorising execution of registrable documents — should be registered or attested before the sub-registrar. Registrars routinely refuse to act on bare notarised POAs for property transactions.
A GPA grants broad authority over defined affairs; an SPA authorises one specified act and lapses with it. For transactions, the SPA is safer for everyone — including the counterparty reading it.
Sign the India-drafted document before the Indian Embassy/Consulate (or notarise and apostille in Hague countries), send it to India, and have it stamped through the Collector of Stamps within three months of its receipt in India. It is then usable before Delhi’s registrars.
The instrument becomes inadmissible until cured — expect adjudication, penalty and delay before any registrar acts on it. On a live deal, that can mean re-executing abroad. Diarise the date the document lands in India.
No — death revokes it instantly (unless coupled with an interest). Anything signed after death is void, and the property moves only through succession. Families managing an elderly parent’s affairs should plan the will alongside the POA, not instead of it.
By a registered revocation deed with notice to the attorney and to parties dealing with them — mirror the formality of the grant. An irrevocable POA exists only where coupled with the attorney’s own interest.
Structure payments to the owner’s account. A POA that routes consideration to the attorney is a red flag for the buyer, complicates the owner’s tax and repatriation trail, and edges toward the disguised-sale territory the law penalises.
Nominal duty for genuine authority instruments — but a POA authorising sale to a non-relative, or given for consideration, is chargeable like a conveyance. The duty follows the substance, not the title of the document.
No. The discount prices the absence of ownership: no registered deed means no title, no mutation, no mortgage, and no clean resale. Whatever the paperwork bundle contains, if it doesn’t contain a registered conveyance from the true owner, you are buying possession, not property.
POA drafting coordination, registrar formalities, verification on both sides of the table — we shepherd NRI deals end to end. Clean deals only.
Positions reflect the Powers of Attorney Act 1882, the Indian Stamp Act (including Section 18’s three-month stamping rule for foreign-executed instruments), Delhi registration practice, and Suraj Lamp & Industries v. State of Haryana (2011) as applied in July 2026. Consular procedures vary by mission; verify current requirements with the relevant Embassy and a Delhi property lawyer before executing.
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