GPA transactions on hold in Chandigarh

The Supreme Court verdict stating that sale transactions carried in the name of general power of attorney (GPA) have no legal sanctity and immovable property can be sold or transferred only through registered deeds, has had a ripple effect on property transfers. Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) has decided to put all applications for transfer of CHB flats on the basis of GPA on hold till it receives orders from the UT Administration on the apex court verdict. The SC in its October 12 order pronounced that only registered sale deeds and not GPAs are valid transfers of ownership. But the orders are not with retrospective effect and existing properties that have been purchased from a GPA holder (before October 11, 2011) will, thus, not be affected. Even those who hold a GPA today can “regularise” it by converting it into a sale deed but they can no longer sell it to a third party. From the day of the apex court’s direction, CHB, which has about 50,000 dwelling units in the city and receives 15-20 applications in a week on an average, received two applications for flat transfers through GPA. While Board officials have maintained that pendency of cases pertaining to transfer of houses on the basis of GPA is as low as 25, no application received by the Board will be processed till there is clarity on the matter. The situation is no different at the office of the Registrar Cooperative Societies (RCS), which has not received any application since the Supreme Court order on GPA-based flat transfers. While the managements of these group housing societies have been authorised to carry out these transactions within the societies, the office of the RCS is the authority for thousands of group housing society flats located in Phase III, Sectors 48-51, and has to be intimated in writing about any flat transfer in the group housing societies. On an average, the office of the RCS gets 15-20 such intimations a month. Part of the Dream Weave Walk Network 1998-2012