Hello World.
South Gujarat is experiencing a wave of crime serials in real life . The bone of contention is General or Special Power of Attorney .There is hardly any problem with a genuine document.There are very few instances where a donor nullifies the document on the basis of breach of trust by the donee. Today the reason for this public discussion is the rise in instances of presentation of a fake general/special power of attorney as an instrument for transfer of property and a very powerful tool to terrorise, blackmail and coerce the owner of a prime property. Even if the property owner is resourceful in every manner , he/she is rendered helpless when he /she reaches the doorsteps of a revenue office, police station, advocate, senior advocate, counsel and the courts ! If the property owner has no resource,knowledge, contact ,he/she has either to forego rights to property or to surrender at the terms dictated by crooks.
Discussion on Notification : Government of Gujarat,
Revenue Department: No. SCA-102011-996-H1 dated 07-01-2012.
Gujarat is supposed to be the best ruled state in India. Even though the galaxy of police officers are in prison cells with deputy home minister Mr. Amit Shah out of the state as an accomplice and extern ,Gujarat has still maintained reputation about governance. In Gujarat , Surat is the most important financial hub that has slowly albeit definitely & gradually moved to be a major spot favourite to criminals. Recent murder of a equally doubtful land organiser brings out officially a very powerful nexus between land mafia, builders, land organisers, financiers, diamontaires, contractors, govt. officers, data entry operators, computer clerks, politicians, office bearer of a political party, advocates, notary publics and contract killers. In the recent spate of sensational crimes, involvement of any police employee is yet not revealed. That is a matter of compliments for the demoralised and much defamed force.
Land mafia and land grabbers manipulate Revenue Records , create fake power of attorney ,sale agreement ( sata khat / banakhat ), sale deed, ID proof and with the same they sell the property / land without knowledge and consent of respective innocent owner/s .Among several land owners inflicted by this phenomenon, the most notable are Mr. Dilip Chashmawala , Ex-President of South Gujarat Chamber of Commerce & Industries and Mr B. B. Desai and Mrs.Geetaben B. Desai , Ex-Mayor of Surat Municipal Corporation . No land and property owner is immune from these criminals. The State and its effect of good governance cease to exist as far as this sort of nefarious activities are concerned. All these land owners had to resort to legal measures and undergo terrible financial and mental stress.
These potential and proven criminals are not deterred by any law, rule, order or any restrictive measure because few unscrupulous government officials /servants, advocates, notary public, police officers, office bearers of political parties are involved in this activity and are supporting these people / criminals with ulterior motives.
They have been successful in twisting and truncating the law books in their favour with the help and encouragement of corrupt officers and interested advocates.
The Government of Gujarat has taken effective and corrective steps to plug the holes in the system, but, the criminals manage to be one step ahead of the legal machinery ! With my deep study and observation of several instances and cases , their modus operandi , howsoever accurate, is revealed and established. From my experience and submissions made from time to time in the past , i vouch that the government responds and acts . It is difficult to get head and tail of this dragon so at times these measures are proved to be halfhearted.
In the same process i submit
That the revenue officers like talati cum mantri, mamlatdar, e dhara mamlatdar and sub-registrar should take cognisance of property owner’s intimation regarding non existence of any general/special power of attorney to sell or administer the concerned land / property.
That even though the general/special power of attorney is duly notarized ,it should be compulsory to register each and every general/special power of attorney at District Collector’s office within 30 days of its notarisation and before this process of such registration is completed at the district collectorate its use should be made illegal. At present such registration is compulsory for general/special power of attorney donated by non resident Indians (NRIs), persons of Indian origin (PoIOs)and foreign nationals. It is submitted further that this registration should be mentioned in Record of Rights including village form 7/12 or property card,
That a photograph of the land / property holder should be pasted or printed on village form 7/12 or property card ,
That the following provisions should be appended or included in the latest notification of Revenue Department No.SCA-102011-996-H1 Date 07/01/2012 on page No 2.Tharav No 3.
A. That at present at the time of registration of the sale deed on the basis of general or special power of attorney, sub registrar issues a notice to the land owner at the address mentioned in the general or special power of attorney. In most of the cases the actual and correct address of the owner is not mentioned. In most of such cases it is ought to be fictitious . To prevent any chance of fraud,sub registrar should send a notice to the owner of the property at his/her present address and permanent address as mentioned in the Record of Rights.After computerization of records, these addresses are noted in e-dhara mamlatdar’s office / computer while taking photograph /finger print of the land owner. The sub registrar should also notify the original owner of the property by phone /mobile / SMS along with a notice by registered A.D. post letter to present address and permanent address noted in e dhara mamlatdar’s office.
B. That at present the power of attorney has to give his affidavit with photograph / finger print and signature. This photo graph / finger print and signature should be verified with the photograph / fingerprint and signature in the Record of Rights .
C. That the power of attorney holder has to give affidavit to the effect that the original owner /owners have not canceled, withdrawn, revoked the power of attorney. Instead /over and above,this can only be verified by asking original owner / owners by phone/ mobile whether he/she has given power of attorney or not and if the fact is contrary to affidavit, criminal proceedings must be initiated against the presenter of affidavit and power of attorney.
D.That as a vehicle owner has a vehicle registration certificate book with number (RT.O. ‘s R.C.BOOK),to protect original property owner / owners ,the government should give a property UNIC ID Number with a property book which should be presented to sub registrar’s office at the time of registration of sale deed or agreement .State government can/should confirm the owner/owners/ownership of the property.
E.That genuineness of the purpose of power of attorney needs to be ascertained .Such a document made in favour of a person other than a close relative should be subjected to a close scrutiny. Such a document should have a time limit of validity having a specific expiry date mentioned specifically in the text of the said document. The general or special power of attorney without the actual possession should/must not be allowed to transact any sale deed. Present practice of executing such a document made on a non judicial stamp of Rs.100/-(Rupees one hundred) should be forbidden and the non judicial stamp used for sale deed or sale agreement must be on a non judicial stamp commensurate with the prevalent juntry rates.
It is submitted further
That the present system of outsourcing the job of data entry in government departments to private firms/contractors be discontinued at once. As it happened in Surat sub registrar’s office, the data entry clerk played ‘copy and paste’ tricks with the photographs of the original property owners by pasting those of criminal gangsters at the time of registration and replacing them thereafter with the originals for Rs. 07 lacs (Rupees seven lacs) for the main operator and Rs.70,000/ (Rupees Seventy Thousand) for his accomplice assistant. The link, it seems, will end in Gandhinagar’s sachivalaya ! I hope and wish that it is not the office of any minister or BJP’s office bearer !! Who says that citizens’ properties are safe ?
That in any case of fraud or forgery government should stand by the property owner/s..
That the validation of the document( GPoA) in question by Stamp Valuation Authority should not be construed as a legal sanction for transferring any right of the property by notary’s registration. The present trend of the judiciary to absolve the notary public from any legal responsibility of the fake general or special power of attorney is alarming. The loopholes in the General Power of Attorney Act, the Notary Act, the Registration Act and the Transfer of Property Act encourage the unscrupulous elements to forge, fraud and fake deeds .The seriousness of such instances have reached an alarming level warranting attention of Government of India and various state governments.
That all RTS,civil and criminal cases related to land issues should be decided in a specific time limit in a special district or taluka level Fast track Court. At present advocates appearing for accused involved in criminal offences resort to delaying tactics thus giving ample time for their clients to tamper and manipulate evidences and maneuver witnesses.
That documents and papers involving the powerful gangsters often disappear from court custody and government offices. i know of three cases where culprits are free due to unavailability of records resulting in status quo in prosecution before courts of law .The judicial officers are rendered helpless. The gangsters bribe the record keeping clerk with unimaginable amount. At the most, the clerk is suspended , inquiry is ordered and with lapse of time everyone forgets the issue and the suspended clerk is reinstated! As an erring judge suspended once continues his legal practice , this employee assumes a role of a fixer till the moment of reinstatement !
That the judicial officers often grant bail to the accused involved in criminal cases. Such accused take judiciary and judicial process for granted. Hence they are not deterred by any provision of law. As it is observed in few cases, at the stage of seeking anticipatory bail at the high court level, the notary public involved in such a scam, hires an advocate at very handsome fees. The case is made out that the notary has limited role/function to perform, that the notary has nothing to do with what is being notarised, that the notary is not supposed to know the text of the document being notarized, that the notary is not required to check the credentials as well as ID proof of the witnesses and parties concerned, that even though the document concerning somebody’s property, the notary is not bothered, required to check genuineness of the document and parties concerned. The more serious argument often made out in defense of the notary public who is also the important accomplice in the fraud is that forging or notarising the fake general/special power of attorney is not a crime serious enough to be looked into or decided upon by the High Court. The job of deciding that issue is not the concern of the High Court which decides the granting of the bail to an accused or accomplice of that act of crime. The defense is that as far as the fake general power of attorney is not used for the purpose it is designed or made out to be for transacting a deed, the crime is not committed. Meaning thereby that if the fake general/special power of attorney is not used for the purpose of affecting a sale deed or sale agreement, crime is not committed .Meaning further thereby that forging or making and keeping in one’s custody a fake general or special power of attorney is not a cognisable or noncognisable crime . It is not a crime to be taken seriously. As soon as the notary public is granted anticipatory bail by the high court, the rest of the gangsters line up before the district and sessions court for getting the bail on the ground of the bail granted to the notary public by the high court. As it is observed, the the district and sessions courts grant bail leniently. Thus at no stage the crime committed in making a fake instrument, document, general or special power of attorney is taken into consideration. The judicial officers address the effect thus ignoring the seriousness of the underlying cause. If at any stage the judicial officers consider this Blog a contempt of court, let it be so. This is what I see and perceive as a lay man. i have strong doubts and fears about my personal safety and that of the affected property owners in Surat, Navsari & the rest of Gujarat. i express my views to reflect the voice and feelings of millions of property owners. There is a genuine public interest involved and therefore my Blog be considered Vox Populi.
That the inherent contradictions and conflicting anomalies in the texts and interpretation of provisions of the General Power of Attorney Act, the Notary Act, the Registration Act and the Transfer of Property Act should be reexamined by legal experts and a public debate needs to be encouraged for the corrective steps to book the criminals and safeguard innocent citizens’ properties. The State has already failed to ensure personal safety. Now if the present situation is allowed to continue, no property in Gujarat and India is considered safe. We have traveled to this stage from 15 August 1947 , the day the Britishers left us Independent and 26 January 1950 , the day we became citizens of a Republic to 26 January 2012. Is there any reason for citizens to be happy? Where is the Republic of India that is guaranteed by the Constitution of India ?
