Dispute with my cousins for my legitamate share in sale proceeds
Sir, I am a Sr.Citizen of 68 yrs and having difficulty in making frequent travels and settled in Pune, Maharashtra.
My late father had a joint property with his late 2 elder brothers in our native place in Guntakal (GTL), AP. We left GTL 50 years back and my father didn’t share any details on the joint property with us, 2 years back I learnt my 2 cousins (sons of my fathers 2 brothers) have sold off a piece of land. When I met them, they refused to cooperate and hence engaged an advocate there. My cousins in turn had connived with my advocate (which I came to know much later) after bribing him and having trusted my advocate agreed for the sum my advocate allegedly negotiated with my cousins. It is a fact that my cousins didn’t get the full amount specified in the Sale deed , since my cousins have engaged developr’s services to evict the encroachers illegally settled on our land, I have signed the new Sale deed along with my cousins in April 2018 and accepted the amount specified by my Advocate.
The developer confided that I have been cheated by my cousins and provided the sum he had paid to my cousins, the recorded transcript I am having. When I requested he refused to vouch before my cousins, due to their long relationship,
Though initially my cousins denied, but later accepted of their connivance with my advocate and wish to settle it in our meeting, which is scheduled in the next week.
My eldest cousin B stays in a town near by GTL. My elder cousin A is having a record of other plots jointly held by 3 families, but was reluctant to share. It is also learnt from my eldest cousin B that my elder cousin A has solely made a few agreements to sell other pieces of property jointly held by 3 families and taken advance without involving my eldest cousin B. (This happened before I started interacting with my cousins)
I seek your counselling on following.
1. What are the legal options left? The new sale deed was signed by me in April 2018.
2. Can I depend upon the recorded telephonic transcript of the conversation I had with the developer, where he revealed the payments received by my cousins to decide upon the compensation amount to claim for the balance legitimate amount.
3. In case the talks fail and I choose to approach a new Advocate, looking to my health condition, can I provide him a Power of Attorney to act on my behalf, to discuss/ persuade/ negotiate with my cousins to arrive at an amicable settlement?
4. In case my new advocate decides to take up the matter legally, can he argue on my behalf? Do the courts insist for personal appearance during hearing? This is looking to my bad health condition.
5. What is the procedure to ensure that my cousins do not sell other jointly held properties (without my knowledge) for which they have taken advances and those plots which are still lying vacant.
6. I am filing my IT returns regularly and I have shared the amount with my siblings. What are the IT implications.
Asked 4 years ago in Property Law
Religion: Hindu