The General Power of Attorney and the Special Power of Attorney are some of the most common documents that we are asked to notarised for use in India. In addition to the relatively large percentage of people of Indian origin living in Western Sydney, the reality is that a large proportion of the hardworking migrant population send money 'back home' to invest in property for themselves or their parents. Respect! (Being from a migrant family having migrated to Australia young in the late 1970s, I can relate to this.)
Our goal is to help our clients do what they need to do and in most cases, they wish to appoint someone in India to handle their property transaction or related banking and lending activities on their behalf. The most appropriate document to achieve this goal is called a 'power of attorney'.
The power of attorney is a formal legal document that appoints someone else to do things on your behalf. The nature and scope of their authority is entirely up to you. You can appoint and authorise them to represent you on all things, or you could limit that appointment and authorisation to a few things - obviously depending on the nature of what you want them to do and your relationship and level of trust with the person that you appoint as your attorney (the person receiving the power). There are general legal principles around the rights and obligations of donor (the person giving the power) and the attorney, however this largely relies on the content of the document - the power of attorney.
Knowing what is included in the power of attorney is important because it determines the attorney's powers and responsibilities. The main types of power of attorney documents that we notarise for clients sending them to India are the General Power of Attorney and the Special Power of Attorney. Each type of power of attorney would be used for a different purpose and appropriate for different situations. In most cases, you will need to obtain advice from whoever requires the authority to be given to determine which power of attorney is appropriate.
Sometimes clients will ask whether we can prepare a power of attorney for use in India. The simple answer is 'no'. The power of attorney should be prepared according to the laws of India and in a way that is appropriate to the purpose of the power of attorney. As we are not qualifies lawyers for India or practice in Indian law, we are unable to assist with this - however, we have provided on this and various other websites a copy of the power of attorney templates that many of our clients have used in the past. While we cannot guarantee that these templates are appropriate to your situation or assist you with completing any blank spaces with the relevant information regarding your situation, our experience has been that sometimes the legal requirements in India can be unclear, depending on who you are dealing with - but sometimes they can be extremely strict and pedantic.
The best advice that we can provide is be clear on what documents will need to be signed, if and how they need to be notarised by a notary public, whether they need to be countersigned by the Indian Consulate/VFS (which may also mean they need to be stamped with an apostille from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) and whether you must follow any other formal requirement before returning the document to India. If the person receiving the power of attorney is strict in their requirements, be aware that sometimes they may even require the document to be printed on 'foolscap green paper' or stamped paper or bonded paper - all of which are various legal requirements that exist in India as part of their normal protocol in preparing legal documents, however these requirements or the materials do not generally exist in Australia and are difficult if not impossible to source.
Edit 2017 (see updated video)
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.
