Lawfully yours: By Retd Justice K Chandru

Officials can't be faulted for demanding old documents in property deals through POA

In 1950, a patta holder sold the land property to a limited company, which in turn, sold it to several buyers in the 1970s through a Power of Attorney (POA) holder. A parcel of land was purchased by a respectable individual who in turn sold it to my grandfather in the 1980s. All these transactions are recorded in the registered sale/purchase deeds of the vendor and my grandfather. However, though an application for patta was made four months ago, my grandfather is yet to get instruction/info from the Revenue Department. The land was inspected and the Revenue office concurs it is a genuine transaction. But a senior official insists on the 1956 sale deed/POA copy and 1970 POA copy. Kindly clarify whether

i) Patta is obtainable under the above said circumstances especially when the executants have deceased

ii) Very old documents are essential, especially when the Registration Department offices concerned are periodically trifurcated and they have made known their inability to trace the SRO, let alone the ancient documents

iii) Any appeal is possible in the absence of the Revenue Department's categorical information as the RTI route may not fetch desired results

— Shiv Kylash, via email

An RTI query may help you to locate the office in which the SRO is available. Once you are aware of the availability, you can apply for a copy of the old documents including the POA (which must be a registered document) and then seek for patta.

The officers are right in asking the old documents to verify the genuineness of the transaction since it is a sale through a POA of the properties owned by the company.