Notary Public for General Power of Attorney for India
One of our most common requests for notary services is to notarise the General Power of Attorney used in India. Generally, clients are buying or selling property in India, taking loans from Indian banks, or conducting legal proceedings in the courts in India. However, because they are not physically present in India, they need to appoint someone (an attorney) to act and do all things necessary on their behalf in India.For those people who are in Sydney, Australia (especially around the Parramatta area and Sydney’s western suburbs), we provide notary public services to assist them with the General Power of Attorney intended to be used in India. A General Power of Attorney prepared for use in India but signed in a foreign country (such as Australia) must be notarised in order for it to be valid and accepted in India.
If the General Power of Attorney is prepared in India, it is generally printed on ‘bonded’ or ‘stamped’ paper bearing a mark indicating that some sort of duty or fee has been paid to the government. This type of official paper is not readily available in Australia. If you have been told that your General Power of Attorney must be on this kind of paper, then you will need to arrange for a hard copy of the General Power of Attorney to be prepared in India by your lawyer in India and physically sent to you in a hard copy format. If you lawyer in India emails a copy of this document to you, you will not be able to print it on the official paper in Australia.
Many of our clients have the General Power of Attorney prepared for them by their lawyer in India and sent to them by email. In Australia, they then print it on normal A4 paper (which is commonly used in Australia) before bringing it to our notary public for notarisation. Our experience with the formal requirements of the General Power of Attorney for India varies. For example:
- Some the General Power of Attorney must include a photograph of the ‘executant’ or ‘donor’, sometimes they also need to provide a photograph of their attorney.
- Sometimes the photograph of the executant or donor must be signed by them (across the photograph) and then notarised, and other times the notary public just needs to place a seal over the photograph.
- Sometimes the General Power of Attorney must be witnessed by 2 people and the notary public (and the notary public must witness your witnesses).
- Sometimes the General Power of Attorney must be witnessed by the notary public alone.
- Sometimes the General Power of Attorney must be lodged with the Indian Consulate, and sometimes it needs to be processed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade first with either authentication or apostille.
- We have had clients include their thumbprint, and we have also had a client who had to place a print of ALL fingers and thumbs!
We also encourage our clients to check with their lawyer in India whether their General Power of Attorney must be authenticated and legalised with the Indian Consulate. We understand that this requirement may vary depending on what the General Power of Attorney is intended to do, and whether it is used for a personal or commercial purpose. For more information, we encourage you to contact the Indian Consulate in your state after obtaining advice from your lawyer in India.
Our notary public has extensive experience in assisting Indians, non resident Indians, person of Indian origin, or anyone with property dealings in India with the General Power of Attorney for India. See examples of the General Power of Attorney used by banks in India.
If you are looking for assistance with legal proceedings, including divorce proceedings under the Hindu Marriage Act, please see this previous post.
To obtain a quote on our notary public services for India, please visit https://www.notary-parramatta.com.au/notary-fees/.
Acknowledgements
This blog is supported and maintained by Phang Legal. Phang Legal is a leading provider of notary public services in Sydney. With offices conveniently located in Parramatta, Phang Legal supports and services the Indian community across Sydney with readily available and easily accessible notary public services at highly competitive rates.
For more information regarding notary public services for documents going to India, view our notary publications at https://www.notary-parramatta.com.au/jurisdiction/india-notary/.
Frequently asked questions regarding our notary public services can also be found at https://www.notary-parramatta.com.au/faqs/.
For Hindi to English translation services by NAATI accredited translators, see https://hindi-naati-translation.blogspot.com.au/.
Notary Public
Ern Phang is the solicitor director of Phang Legal and a notary public. Ern regularly writes about his experiences as a notary public, including the kinds of problems and solutions that his clients face when sending documents to India.
IMPORTANT: the information in this article is correct at the time of publication, however the law constantly changes. This means you should always refer to the most recent articles because we try to update this blog on a regular basis with the most current information.
