A Mohali Sale Deed Signed Abroad: How The Registration Act Treats A Deed Executed Outside India विदेश में साइन हुई मोहाली की सेल डीड: रजिस्ट्रेशन एक्ट भारत के बाहर साइन डीड को कैसे देखता है ਵਿਦੇਸ਼ ਵਿੱਚ ਸਾਈਨ ਹੋਈ ਮੋਹਾਲੀ ਦੀ ਸੇਲ ਡੀਡ: ਰਜਿਸਟ੍ਰੇਸ਼ਨ ਐਕਟ ਭਾਰਤ ਤੋਂ ਬਾਹਰ ਸਾਈਨ ਡੀਡ ਨੂੰ ਕਿਵੇਂ ਦੇਖਦਾ ਹੈ

An owner who lives abroad and wants to sell or buy a Mohali property has two broad routes. One is to give someone in India a power of attorney and let that person sign. The other is to sign the deed itself overseas and send it home. This piece looks at the second route. The rules that govern it sit in the Registration Act of nineteen hundred and eight and the Indian Stamp Act of eighteen ninety nine. They exist only because the document was signed outside India. A buyer or seller living in Mohali never meets them.

Why a deed signed abroad is a separate case

Most deeds are signed in front of the sub-registrar, or shortly before the visit to the office. The Registration Act sets a clock for that. Section twenty three says that a document other than a will is accepted for registration only if it is presented "within four months from the date of its execution".

A deed signed abroad can take longer than that to reach India. Couriers are slow. The owner may also be waiting on a buyer or a bank. The Act deals with this in section twenty six, which is headed "Documents executed out of India".

What section twenty six allows

Section twenty six applies when a document "purporting to have been executed by all or any of the parties out of India" is not presented within the normal time. The registering officer may accept it on payment of the proper fee if satisfied of two things. The first is "that the instrument was so executed". The second is "that it has been presented for registration within four months after its arrival in India".

So the four months run from arrival, not from signature. The section gives the officer a discretion and does not create a right. The officer has to be satisfied that the deed really was signed abroad and that it reached India within the window. That makes the date of arrival something the party presenting the deed may be asked to show. Courier records, passport stamps of a person carrying the deed and the date on which stamp duty was paid can all bear on it.

The section also covers a deed signed abroad by only some of the parties. A sale where the seller signs overseas and the buyer signs in Mohali falls inside it. Section twenty four separately allows a deed signed by several people at different times to be presented within four months of each signature.

Stamp duty on a deed signed abroad

Stamp duty is a separate question from registration. Section eighteen of the Indian Stamp Act, which Punjab applies with its own schedule of rates, deals with instruments executed only out of India. It says such an instrument "may be stamped within three months after it has been first received in India".

That clock is shorter than the registration window and starts at the same moment. A deed that arrives in India has to be stamped within three months of arrival and presented for registration within four. Where a party in India has signed the deed as well, the ordinary rule applies to that signature. Duty is then due before or at the time of execution in India.

In Punjab duty and registration fees are now paid online as part of the Easy Registry process before the appointment at the office. The portal records the date of payment, which then sits alongside the arrival date on the file.

Signing is not the same as admitting

Registration in India is more than receiving a signed paper. Section thirty four of the Act says a document is registered only after the persons executing it or their agents appear before the registering officer. Section thirty five then deals with the admission of execution. The officer registers the deed once the executants admit that they signed it.

A seller who signed in London or Toronto is not in the room in Mohali. Someone has to appear and admit execution on that seller's behalf, and the Act allows an agent to do so only if the agent holds a power of attorney of the right kind.

Section thirty two A adds another layer. It requires every person presenting a document at the office to affix a passport size photograph and fingerprints to it, and it requires the same of the buyer and the seller of immovable property. Easy Registry captures photographs at the counter. The section does not say how the fingerprints of a seller who is abroad are to be supplied, and practice in Punjab offices on this point is not set out in any published circular we could find.

The power of attorney the Act asks for

Section thirty three lists the powers of attorney that count for presenting a document and admitting execution. For a principal who "does not reside in India" at the time, it recognises a power of attorney "executed before and authenticated by a Notary Public, or any Court, Judge, Magistrate, Indian Consul or Vice-Consul, or representative of the Central Government".

So the deed signed abroad still leans on a power of attorney in most sales. The difference from the first route is that the agent's job is narrow. The agent presents the deed and admits execution. The agent does not choose the buyer or sign the sale.

Apostille and consular attestation

India joined the Hague Convention that abolished the need for consular legalisation of foreign public documents, and the Ministry of External Affairs issues and recognises apostilles under it. A deed or power of attorney notarised in a convention country can carry an apostille from that country's designated authority.

Section thirty three, on its own wording, accepts a notarised power of attorney without saying anything about an apostille. Section eighty five of the Evidence Act and the matching provision of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam raise a presumption about powers of attorney executed before and authenticated by a notary or consul. How a Punjab sub-registrar treats a foreign notary's seal without an apostille or Indian consular attestation is a matter of office practice, and the published Easy Registry guidance we read does not address it.

Where the Mohali owner abroad stands

The legal framework gives a seller abroad a workable path. A deed can be signed overseas, stamped within three months of arrival and registered within four. The seller's agent can then present it and admit execution under a suitable power of attorney.

What the framework does not do is remove the need for someone to appear in Mohali. It also leaves several practical points to the discretion of the registering officer. These include proof of the date of arrival and the treatment of a foreign notary's seal. The fingerprint requirement for a party who is abroad is another.

How this differs from the power of attorney route

Under the first route, the agent in India signs the sale deed as attorney. The deed is executed in India. Section twenty six and section eighteen of the Stamp Act do not come into it. The risk sits with the breadth of the power, which earlier pieces on this site describe.

Under the second route, the owner signs the deed personally. The power of attorney is limited to presentation and admission. Both routes depend on a power of attorney authenticated in the way section thirty three describes.

What this piece does not cover

It does not deal with income tax on the sale or the tax deducted by the buyer. It also does not deal with taking the sale money abroad. Both are covered elsewhere on this site. It also does not cover gifts or wills, which follow their own rules.

Related reading

- Protecting a Mohali property from a forged power of attorney while living abroad
- Can a Mohali property be registered online or at any sub-registrar office

Sources: The sources we use are listed on our Editorial Sources page.

This piece describes the published text of the Registration Act and the Indian Stamp Act as they apply to deeds signed outside India. Nothing here is legal advice, and any sale or purchase turns on its own papers and facts.