TL;DR: A power of attorney (PoA) is a written instrument by which one person, the principal (also called the donor), authorises another, the agent (the donee or attorney), to act in the principal’s name. A general PoA grants broad authority; a special PoA is tied to one task or transaction. Registration is not centrally mandatory under the Registration Act, 1908, but several states now require a PoA dealing with immovable property to be registered, and registration is the safe default for any property work. Stamp duty is fixed by each state, so it varies. A PoA executed abroad needs apostille or Indian consular attestation and must usually be adjudicated for stamp duty within three months of reaching India. After Suraj Lamp & Industries v State of Haryana (2011), a GPA does not transfer title to land - only a registered sale deed does. A PoA can be revoked by the principal, and it ordinarily ends on the principal’s death.
On this page
- What a power of attorney actually is
- The law that governs a PoA in India
- General power of attorney vs special power of attorney
- Durable PoA and the incapacity problem
- When registration is mandatory
- Stamp duty: why it varies by state
- Notarisation vs registration
- Executing a PoA from abroad
- Suraj Lamp and the death of GPA property sales
- Revoking a PoA and the effect of death
- How to draft a PoA and sample clauses
- How Niyam helps
- Frequently asked questions
What a power of attorney actually is
A power of attorney is, at its core, a delegation. You cannot be in two places at once, you may not have the legal training to handle a transaction, or you may simply be unwell or overseas when something needs signing. So the law lets you appoint someone to step into your shoes for a defined purpose. That appointment is the power of attorney.
The person who gives the authority is the principal. Older documents and many practitioners still call this person the donor or the constituent. The person who receives the authority is the agent, also called the donee or, confusingly, “the attorney” - even though they need not be a lawyer at all. Your brother, your accountant, a trusted friend, or a property dealer can all hold a power of attorney for you.
The instrument matters because acts done by the agent within the scope of the authority bind the principal as if the principal had done them personally. If your agent signs a lease on your behalf under a valid PoA, you are the landlord on that lease, not the agent. That is the whole point. It is also the danger, which is why drafting, scope, and revocation deserve careful thought.
A PoA is not a transfer of ownership and it is not a contract of sale. It is an authority to act. That single distinction, often misunderstood, sits behind most of the litigation in this area, and it is the reason the Supreme Court had to step in and clean up the “GPA sale” practice that we cover later in this guide.
The statutory definition is short. Under the Powers-of-Attorney Act, 1882, a power of attorney “includes any instrument empowering a specified person to act for and in the name of the person executing it.” That breadth is deliberate. A PoA can be a single page authorising one bank withdrawal, or a detailed deed running to several pages covering the entire management of a person’s affairs.
The law that governs a PoA in India
There is no single code that contains everything about powers of attorney. Instead, the subject sits across a handful of statutes, and you need to read them together.
The Powers-of-Attorney Act, 1882 is the headline statute, but it is surprisingly thin. It defines the instrument, deals with execution under the name and seal of the donee, and protects an agent who acts in good faith after the principal has died or revoked the authority without the agent’s knowledge. It does not lay down detailed rules on scope, duties, or termination.
For those, you go to the Indian Contract Act, 1872. A PoA is a species of agency. Chapter X of the Contract Act, beginning at Section 182, defines an agent and a principal and governs the relationship between them. The duties an agent owes, the limits of authority, and crucially the rules on when an agency ends all come from this Chapter. Section 201 lists how an agency terminates, and Section 202 carves out the special case of an agency “coupled with interest.” We return to both below.
The Registration Act, 1908 controls whether and when a PoA must be registered. The Indian Stamp Act, 1899, together with each state’s own stamp legislation, controls the duty payable on it. And the law of evidence, now the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, tells a court how to treat a PoA that has been properly authenticated.
That last point is worth pausing on. Under Section 84 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 (which carries forward the old Section 85 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872), a court “shall presume” that a document purporting to be a power of attorney, executed before and authenticated by a notary public, a court, a judge, a magistrate, an Indian Consul or Vice-Consul, or a representative of the Central Government, was in fact so executed and authenticated. This is a rebuttable presumption, but it is a real evidentiary benefit. A properly notarised PoA arrives in court with a head start, and the person disputing it carries the burden of showing it is not genuine.
General power of attorney vs special power of attorney
This is the first fork in the road, and getting it right saves a lot of grief. The distinction is about scope, not about a different kind of document.
A general power of attorney (GPA) grants broad authority. The agent can act across a range of matters - banking, property management, litigation, tax, business - within whatever boundaries the deed sets. People reach for a GPA when they need someone to run their affairs over a stretch of time, for example an elderly parent giving a child wide authority, or a businessperson going abroad for a long posting.
A special power of attorney (SPA), sometimes called a limited PoA, is tied to a single task or a narrow set of tasks. “Sell my flat at this address.” “Appear in this one suit.” “Operate this fixed deposit.” Once the task is done, the SPA is spent.
The trade-off is straightforward. A GPA is convenient but dangerous, because broad authority can be misused and a buyer or bank may hesitate before relying on it. An SPA is safer and more readily accepted by sub-registrars, banks, and counterparties precisely because its limits are written on its face. As one practitioner-facing summary on selling NRI property notes, a special PoA “is more readily accepted by authorities and buyers and reduces risks of misuse” (NoBroker).
Here is a side-by-side view.
| Feature | General PoA | Special PoA |
|---|---|---|
| Scope of authority | Broad, multiple matters | One task or transaction |
| Typical use | Managing affairs over time | Selling one property, one court case |
| Risk of misuse | Higher | Lower |
| Acceptance by third parties | More scrutiny | Generally easier |
| When it ends | On revocation, death, or completion | When the task is done |
| Best practice | Define limits tightly | Name the exact act and property |
The practical lesson: do not give a general power when a special one will do. If the only thing you need is for your cousin to register a sale deed for a particular plot, draft a special PoA naming that plot and that act. You lose nothing and you close the door on misuse.
A PoA is also frequently confused with the authority a client gives a lawyer to appear in court. Those are different instruments: court authority is case-specific and filed in the proceeding, while a PoA is a wider civil instrument used outside the courtroom. They are not interchangeable, and a PoA does not let your agent argue your case for you.
Durable PoA and the incapacity problem
Here is a gap in Indian law that surprises people who have lived abroad. In the United Kingdom and many other jurisdictions, you can sign a “lasting” or “enduring” power of attorney that is specifically designed to keep working after you lose mental capacity. That is often the entire reason people sign one - to plan for dementia or a disabling illness.
Indian law does not have a dedicated enduring or lasting PoA statute. Because a PoA is an agency, and Section 201 of the Contract Act terminates an agency when the principal becomes “of unsound mind,” a standard PoA risks falling away at exactly the moment the family needs it most. Several commentaries put it bluntly: absent special drafting, an attorney’s power typically terminates on the principal’s mental incapacity (Whytecroft Ford).
In practice, lawyers try to bridge the gap by inserting “durable” language - express words stating that the authority is intended to continue notwithstanding the principal’s subsequent incapacity. Whether such a clause holds up if seriously contested has not been settled by a clear, binding line of authority, so treat durable PoA drafting as a risk-managed workaround rather than a guaranteed solution. We are flagging this honestly: a durable clause helps your case, but it is not the cast-iron instrument that an English LPA is.
If genuine, long-term incapacity is the real concern, the more reliable route is guardianship. Mechanisms exist under the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, and a court or designated authority can appoint a guardian to manage the affairs of a person who cannot manage their own. That is slower and more formal than a PoA, but it survives incapacity by design.
When registration is mandatory
This is where careful answers beat confident ones, because the rule depends on what the PoA does and which state you are in.
Start with the central position. The Registration Act, 1908 lists, in Section 17, the documents that must be registered. A power of attorney as such does not appear on that mandatory list. Section 18 makes registration of a PoA optional at the central level. So, read on its own, the central Act does not force you to register a PoA.
But that is not the end of the story, for two reasons.
First, the document the PoA leads to may itself be compulsorily registrable. A sale deed of immovable property worth more than one hundred rupees has to be registered under Section 17. So even if the PoA is not registered, the conveyance it authorises must be, and many sub-registrars will not act on an unregistered PoA for property work.
Second, and more importantly, several states have amended the Registration Act to make a PoA relating to immovable property compulsorily registrable. The amendment commonly inserts a clause requiring registration of any PoA that creates a power of management, administration, development, transfer, or other dealing in immovable property of value one hundred rupees and above, often with an exception for a PoA given to close family such as a spouse, parent, or child. States including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Odisha have moved in this direction, and as recently as March 2025 the Karnataka government tabled a bill to make registration of property-related PoAs mandatory in that state (Lexology).
A simple decision table.
| Situation | Registration position |
|---|---|
| PoA for banking, tax, general management (no property transfer) | Usually optional |
| PoA to manage or transfer immovable property, no state amendment | Optional centrally, but strongly advisable |
| PoA for immovable property in a state with the amendment | Compulsory |
| PoA given to spouse, parent, or child (where the exception applies) | May be exempt - check local rule |
| PoA executed abroad for property work | Adjudicate stamp duty and register before acting |
The honest one-line rule for anything touching land: register it. Even where the law leaves registration optional, a registered PoA carries more weight, faces fewer objections at the sub-registrar’s office, and is far harder for a counterparty to brush aside. The small cost is worth it.
Stamp duty: why it varies by state
Stamp duty on a PoA is not a single national figure, and anyone who quotes you “the” stamp duty for a PoA is oversimplifying. Stamp duty is a state subject. The Indian Stamp Act, 1899 provides the framework, but states levy and amend duty through their own stamp laws - the Maharashtra Stamp Act, the Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957, the Gujarat Stamp Act, the Kerala Stamp Act, and so on.
The practical consequence is that the duty payable on the same PoA differs depending on where it is executed and what it does. A plain PoA for routine acts often attracts a modest fixed duty. But a PoA that authorises the sale of immovable property to a person who is not a close relative can attract duty calculated as a percentage of the property’s market value, because the state treats it as akin to a conveyance to discourage the very “GPA sale” abuse that Suraj Lamp condemned.
To give a feel for the range - and please treat these as illustrative, not as current quotes, because state rates change - guidance circulating on PoA stamp duty notes that some states fix a small flat duty for a general PoA, while authorising someone outside the family to sell property can attract duty in the region of several percent of the property’s value (ezyLegal). The exact figure, the exemptions for family members, and the treatment of consideration are all state-specific.
The takeaway for drafting:
- Identify the state where the PoA will be used, not just where it is signed.
- Check whether the agent is a family member, because many states give a concessional or nominal rate for PoAs in favour of a spouse, parent, child, or sibling.
- Where the PoA authorises a property sale to a non-relative, budget for ad valorem duty, not a flat fee.
- Never under-stamp. An insufficiently stamped instrument can be impounded, and you will pay the deficit plus a penalty before any authority will act on it.
Because the numbers move, verify the live rate with the sub-registrar or a local advocate before you buy the stamp paper. A guide that confidently states a single all-India figure is a guide to distrust.
Notarisation vs registration
People use these words as if they were the same step. They are not, and the difference affects both validity and evidentiary weight.
Notarisation is attestation by a notary public. The notary verifies the identity of the person signing, witnesses the signature, and authenticates the document. Notarisation does not, by itself, put the document into a public registry. Its main legal payoff is evidentiary: a notarised PoA attracts the presumption of genuine execution under Section 84 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 (formerly Section 85 of the Evidence Act). That presumption is valuable but rebuttable.
Registration is a different and heavier act. The PoA is presented to the sub-registrar, stamp duty is paid, the parties’ identities are verified, the document is entered into the public record, and a registration number is assigned. Registration creates a permanent, searchable public footprint that is very hard to dispute. For anything dealing with immovable property, registration is the gold standard, and in amended states it is compulsory.
A quick comparison.
| Notarisation | Registration | |
|---|---|---|
| Who performs it | Notary public | Sub-registrar |
| Public record created | No | Yes |
| Evidentiary presumption | Yes, rebuttable (BSA s.84) | Strong, public record |
| Needed for property transfer work | Often not enough | The safe and often mandatory route |
| Typical cost | Low | Stamp duty plus registration fee |
A rule of thumb that serves most people well: notarise a PoA for banking, administrative, and litigation tasks; register a PoA for anything that touches the sale, gift, mortgage, or development of land or buildings. When in doubt, register.
Executing a PoA from abroad
This is the situation that brings the most questions, because a large share of property and family matters in India are handled by non-resident Indians and overseas citizens who cannot fly down to sign in person. The process is workable, but it has steps that you cannot skip.
The route depends on whether the country you are in has joined the Hague Apostille Convention.
If you are in an apostille country (much of Europe, the United States, Australia, and many others), you sign the PoA before a local notary, then have the document apostilled by the designated authority in that country. The apostille is an internationally recognised certificate that authenticates the notary’s seal. India accepts apostilled documents, so you do not also need consular attestation. India’s Ministry of External Affairs maintains the official position on apostille and attestation (MEA).
If you are in a non-apostille country (the UAE and most Gulf states are the common examples for the Indian diaspora), the apostille route is not available. Instead, you execute the PoA before the Indian Embassy or Consulate. You appear in person with your Indian passport or OCI card, sign in the presence of the consular officer, and the officer attests your signature. A consulate-attested PoA is then couriered to India.
Either way, two India-side steps follow once the document lands.
-
Adjudication of stamp duty. Within three months of the PoA arriving in India, it should be presented to the Collector or the registrar of assurances having jurisdiction so the correct stamp duty can be assessed and paid. The three-month window is important. Miss it, and you risk penalty and complications when you try to use the document (services2nri).
-
Registration, where required. If the agent will execute documents transferring immovable property, the PoA generally has to be registered in India after stamp duty is paid, in line with the state rule that applies.
A checklist for the overseas principal:
- Confirm whether your country is apostille or non-apostille before you draft.
- Carry your Indian passport or OCI card to the notary or consulate.
- Keep the PoA narrow. A special PoA naming the exact property and act is accepted far more readily than a sweeping general one.
- Courier the original to India promptly and diarise the three-month adjudication deadline.
- Have a local advocate confirm the state’s current stamp and registration position.
One more honest word of caution. Even a perfectly executed overseas PoA can meet resistance, because buyers and lenders treat NRI property sales through a PoA as a higher-risk transaction and may demand extra confirmation of the PoA’s validity and scope. That is not a defect in your document; it is the market pricing in the litigation history. Tight drafting and registration are the best answers.
Suraj Lamp and the death of GPA property sales
For years, a shortcut flourished in Indian property dealing. Instead of executing and registering a proper sale deed - and paying full stamp duty, registration charges, and capital gains tax - parties used a bundle of documents: a sale agreement, a general power of attorney, and a will, the so-called “SA/GPA/WILL” transfer. The buyer paid the price, took possession, and received a GPA “authorising” them to deal with the property, while the registered title stayed in the seller’s name. It saved tax and duty, and it generated endless disputes.
The Supreme Court ended this practice. In Suraj Lamp & Industries (P) Ltd v State of Haryana (2011), a Bench led by Justice R.V. Raveendran delivered judgment on 11 October 2011 and held, in plain terms, that transactions in the nature of “GPA sales” or “SA/GPA/WILL transfers” do not convey title, do not amount to a transfer, and cannot be recognised as a valid mode of transfer of immovable property.
The reasoning is worth stating because people still get this wrong. A power of attorney is an instrument of agency, not an instrument of transfer. It does not create, assign, or extinguish ownership. Ownership of immovable property worth more than one hundred rupees passes only through a registered conveyance under the Transfer of Property Act read with the Registration Act. The Court noted that the SA/GPA/WILL device was used to avoid stamp duty, registration, and tax, and to circulate unaccounted money, and it directed that such transactions be discouraged. A useful case discussion is available at Writing Law.
What Suraj Lamp did not do is abolish powers of attorney. The Court was careful to say that genuine PoAs remain perfectly valid for what they are - authorities to act. A person can still appoint an agent through a PoA to negotiate, to sign a registered sale deed, to manage property, to appear in litigation, and so on. The point is narrow but vital: a GPA can authorise the execution of a sale deed, but the GPA itself is not the sale, and possession plus a GPA does not make the holder the owner.
The practical effect since 2011:
- Buying property on the strength of a GPA alone is unsafe. Insist on a registered sale deed.
- A GPA can still be the mechanism by which an absent owner empowers someone to sign that registered deed.
- Old “GPA properties” sitting on the market carry title risk that any diligent buyer should investigate before paying.
If you want to build the skill of reading a ruling like this for yourself - tracing the holding, separating it from the obiter, and applying it to facts - our guide on how to read a judgment walks through the method on a worked example.
Revoking a PoA and the effect of death
A PoA is not forever, and understanding how it ends is as important as understanding how it begins.
Revocation by the principal. Because a PoA is an agency, the principal can ordinarily revoke it. Section 201 of the Contract Act lists revocation by the principal as a mode of terminating an agency. To revoke cleanly, the principal should execute a deed of revocation, give written notice to the agent, and notify the third parties who have been dealing with the agent - the bank, the sub-registrar, the tenant - so that no one continues to rely on a dead authority. Where the original PoA was registered, the revocation should be registered too, and a public notice is good practice.
The “coupled with interest” exception. There is an important limit on the power to revoke. Section 202 of the Contract Act says that where the agent has an interest in the subject matter of the agency, the authority cannot, in the absence of an express contract, be revoked to the prejudice of that interest. This is the basis of the “irrevocable” PoA you sometimes see, typically where the agent has paid consideration and holds the PoA to protect their own stake. The label “irrevocable” is not magic; it works only where a genuine interest exists. The Supreme Court has confirmed that a PoA can be revoked by the principal unless the agent’s authority is coupled with interest (Drishti Judiciary).
Death of the principal. This trips up many families. As a general rule, a PoA ends on the death of the principal. The agent’s authority flows from the living principal; once the principal dies, there is no one for the agent to represent, and the deceased’s estate passes to heirs or under a will. A general power of attorney stands rescinded on the death of the principal. The same “coupled with interest” exception can keep an agency alive past death where the agent has a genuine interest in the subject matter, but that is the exception, not the rule.
There is one humane protection worth knowing. Under Section 2 of the Powers-of-Attorney Act, 1882, an act done in good faith by an agent who, at the time of the act, did not know that the principal had died or revoked the authority, is still valid as between the agent and third parties dealing in good faith. This shields an honest agent and an honest counterparty from a death or revocation they could not have known about. It does not, however, revive the authority for future acts once the death or revocation is known.
Common termination triggers at a glance.
| Trigger | Effect |
|---|---|
| Principal revokes (no coupled interest) | PoA ends; notify agent and third parties |
| Agent renounces the agency | PoA ends |
| Task completed (special PoA) | PoA spent |
| Principal dies | PoA ends, subject to the coupled-interest exception |
| Principal becomes of unsound mind | Agency terminates absent durable drafting |
| Principal adjudicated insolvent | Agency terminates |
How to draft a PoA and sample clauses
A good PoA is precise, not generous. Vague authority invites both misuse and rejection. Work through these elements.
1. Parties. Name the principal and the agent in full, with parentage or spouse name, age, occupation, and complete address, and state the relationship between them. Identity precision matters at the sub-registrar’s office.
2. Recitals. State briefly why the PoA is being given - the principal is abroad, is unwell, wishes to delegate management of a named property, and so on. Recitals frame the scope and help a reader understand the limits.
3. The grant of authority. This is the heart of the deed. List the specific acts the agent may do. Resist the temptation to add “and all other acts whatsoever” without anchoring it to a defined purpose, because open-ended language is exactly what counterparties distrust and what enables misuse.
4. Limits and conditions. Spell out what the agent may not do, any monetary cap, any requirement to act jointly, and any reporting obligation.
5. Property identification. For a property PoA, describe the property exactly - survey number, plot or flat number, area, boundaries, and document references - just as you would in a sale deed.
6. Duration and revocation. State when the authority begins and ends, and reserve the right to revoke (unless it is deliberately coupled with interest).
7. Ratification. Include a clause confirming that the principal ratifies acts lawfully done by the agent within the authority.
8. Execution. Sign before the appropriate authority - a notary in India, or a consulate or notary plus apostille abroad - with witnesses, and attend to stamp duty and registration.
Below are illustrative skeleton clauses. They are a teaching aid, not a substitute for advice tailored to your state and facts. Have a qualified advocate finalise any PoA that touches property or money.
A special PoA granting clause for a property sale might read:
I, [Principal], do hereby nominate, constitute, and appoint [Agent] as my true and lawful attorney to do the following acts in my name and on my behalf in respect of my property situated at [full description]: (a) to negotiate and finalise the terms of sale; (b) to execute and present for registration the sale deed before the Sub-Registrar having jurisdiction; (c) to receive the sale consideration and grant valid receipts; and (d) to do all acts necessarily incidental to the above, and no others.
A limiting clause might read:
The authority hereby granted is confined strictly to the property and acts described above. My attorney shall not mortgage, gift, lease, or otherwise encumber the said property, nor exercise any authority beyond the express terms of this instrument.
A durable-intent clause (with the caveat above that its effect is not fully settled in India) might read:
This power of attorney shall continue in full force notwithstanding any subsequent mental incapacity of the principal, to the extent permitted by law.
A revocation reservation might read:
The principal reserves the right to revoke this power of attorney at any time by written notice to the attorney, save where the authority is expressly coupled with an interest of the attorney in the subject matter.
When you draft, keep one instinct in mind: grant the narrowest authority that achieves the purpose. Every extra power you confer is an extra power that can be misused or that a sceptical buyer can question. The same discipline of reading the primary source before you rely on it - which we set out in how to read a judgment - applies to checking your state’s stamp and registration rules before you finalise a PoA.
For readers who came to PoA from a family-property angle - inheritance, succession, and the rights of heirs - two related explainers are worth a look: our guide on daughters and ancestral property rights and, for elderly principals who later need support, our coverage of the Maintenance and Welfare of Senior Citizens Act, 2007. And where a PoA is being used as part of a family settlement after a separation, the procedural side is covered in our piece on the mutual consent divorce process.
How Niyam helps
Drafting a power of attorney that actually holds up is a research problem before it is a typing problem. You need to know the state’s current stamp position, whether your state has amended the Registration Act, how the courts have read “coupled with interest,” and what Suraj Lamp does and does not permit. Getting any of those wrong can sink a transaction.
Niyam is built for exactly this. It is a legal research and drafting assistant trained on Indian statutes, rules, and judgments, so you can check the live position on PoA registration in your state, pull up the holding in Suraj Lamp, trace the agency provisions of the Contract Act, and generate a clean first draft of a special or general PoA that you then tailor and have a lawyer review. Instead of stitching together half-right answers from a dozen blogs, you work from primary sources with citations you can verify.
Start for ₹100. Create an account at app.niyam.ai/register and put your first PoA question to the assistant - the registration rule in your state, a draft special PoA for a property sale, or a plain-English read of a Section 202 dispute. You verify everything against the primary sources Niyam cites, and you keep control of the final document.
Frequently asked questions
Is a power of attorney valid without registration in India?
For many purposes, yes. The Registration Act, 1908 does not centrally make a PoA compulsorily registrable, so a notarised PoA can be valid for banking, tax, and litigation tasks. But several states require registration of a PoA that deals with immovable property, and for any property-related PoA, registration is strongly advisable even where it is technically optional. Always check the rule in the state where the PoA will be used.
Can a general power of attorney be used to sell property?
A GPA cannot, by itself, transfer ownership of property. After Suraj Lamp & Industries v State of Haryana (2011), title passes only through a registered sale deed. A GPA can, however, authorise an agent to execute and register that sale deed on the owner’s behalf. So the GPA is the mechanism for signing, not the sale itself.
Does a power of attorney end when the principal dies?
As a general rule, yes. A PoA is an agency, and an agency terminates on the death of the principal under Section 201 of the Contract Act, 1872. The exception is a PoA “coupled with interest” under Section 202, where the agent has a genuine stake in the subject matter, which can survive death. An honest act done by an agent who did not know of the death is protected under the Powers-of-Attorney Act, 1882.
How does an NRI execute a power of attorney from abroad?
If you are in a Hague Apostille country, sign before a local notary and have the document apostilled. If you are in a non-apostille country such as the UAE, execute the PoA before the Indian Embassy or Consulate, which attests your signature. Once the PoA reaches India, get it adjudicated for stamp duty within three months and register it if it will be used for transferring immovable property.
What is the difference between a general and special power of attorney?
A general PoA grants broad authority over many matters; a special PoA is limited to one task or transaction, such as selling a specific flat or handling a single court case. The special PoA is safer and more readily accepted by sub-registrars and buyers because its limits are written on its face. Use a special PoA whenever the purpose is narrow.
How much stamp duty does a power of attorney attract?
It varies by state, because stamp duty is a state subject under the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 and the various state stamp laws. A routine PoA often attracts a modest fixed duty, while a PoA authorising a property sale to a non-family member can attract duty calculated as a percentage of the property’s value. Confirm the live rate with the sub-registrar or a local advocate before buying the stamp paper.
Can a power of attorney be cancelled, and how?
Yes, unless it is genuinely coupled with the agent’s interest. The principal executes a deed of revocation, gives written notice to the agent, and notifies the third parties who were relying on the agent. Where the original PoA was registered, register the revocation as well and consider a public notice so no one continues to act on the cancelled authority.
If you take one thing from this guide, let it be the distinction between authority and ownership. A power of attorney is a tool for getting things done in your name. It is not a deed of title, it can be revoked, and it usually dies with you. Draft it narrowly, stamp and register it properly for the state where it will be used, and treat any “GPA sale” of property with the suspicion the Supreme Court told us to bring to it.