• 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

Ask a question and receive multiple answers in one hour.

Lawyers are available now to answer your questions.

6 Answers

You need to approach court and take stay on the above development by pointing out above points. 

Yes you can rely on them for primafacie proving your case. 

Yes you can approach a new advocate

You need to take injunction from court to stop sale by cousins

IT Implications vary from individual proceeds in the said development

Prashant Nayak
Advocate, Mumbai
31807 Answers
176 Consultations

4.1 on 5.0

Hi 

With reference to your queries, please find enclosed the answers:

 

1) With reference to New Sale Deed signed by you in April 2018, you should file for cancellation of the sale deed on the grounds of it vitiated by fraud and coercion, given the fact that sale consideration itself is in dispute. 

2) Yes , the recorded telephonic conversation can be used as  secondary evidence, but still we need to get the developer testify in the court on the compensation. 

3) In general, an advocate is an agent. Courts will not allow advocate to have power of attorney on behalf of their client. However we can ensure that your presence is required in the court to the barest minimum(i.e at the time of filing of cancellation of sale deed, at the time of your deposition of evidence before the court etc). sometimes video conference (for deposition of evidence) is allowed , subject to we obtaining permission of court and subject to availability of video conferencing facility at GTL Courts. 

4) Your new advocate can appear/file affidavit/argue on your behalf and your presence is not required for all the court hearings. your presence is required in the court to the barest minimum of about 5/6 times (i.e at the time of filing of cancellation of sale deed, at the time of your deposition of evidence before the court etc) 

5) In order to ensure that your cousins do not sell the other jointly held properties, you need to obtain an interim injunction under Order 39 of CPC directing your cousins not to dispose of the properties without your consent. However you will be required to provide details of such properties that are jointly owned by all of you. 

6) Since you have inherited the property which are ancestral in nature and subsequently sold them in April 2018, you are liable to pay long term capital gains under income tax act in the financial year April 2018-March 2019.  You should contact your chartered accountant and address the issue of capital gains liability as u/s54 of Income Tax act, you may be eligible to claim certain exemptions . 

Hope this information is useful. 

Rajgopalan Sripathi
Advocate, Hyderabad
2173 Answers
394 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1) sale deed is binding upon you 

 

2) you can execute POA in favour of another lawyer 

 

3) your personal appearance is not necessary on each date 

 

4) file suit for partition for division of properties by metes and bounds

 

5) seek injunction restraining sale of property by your cousins pending hearing and final disposal of suit 

Ajay Sethi
Advocate, Mumbai
94523 Answers
7486 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

Now first you get or collect all mutation papers from last 50 years back till date.

 

And take search reports from a well known lawyer or govt searchers.

 

After that get stay order on you land from high court not to sell unless and until partition is done and you get your shares under your possession.

Ganesh Kadam
Advocate, Pune
12910 Answers
253 Consultations

4.9 on 5.0

The sale deed signed by you cannot be challenged as it was done with your own will and ground that your advocate cheated you will not be considered as you are a person of sound mind so you should have confirmed before selling the property.

Now you should get the details of left over property by way of RTI or convincing Cousin B for filing partition suit on those properties by hiring a new advocate.

Mohit Kapoor
Advocate, Rohtak
10687 Answers
7 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

1.  Since they have agreed to settle the issue in a meeting wait for the same, if they  fail to settle then you may plan for legal action to cancel the sale deed and seek your legitimate share out of the sale consideration amount.

2. This is not admissible as primary evidence in court of law and cannot be enforced.

3. Dont repeat the mistake.

4. You can engage an advocate to fight your case in the court without your presence also.

5. Obtain an order of injunction against them.

6. The long term capital gains

T Kalaiselvan
Advocate, Vellore
84722 Answers
2172 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

Ask a Lawyer

Get legal answers from lawyers in 1 hour. It's quick, easy, and anonymous!
  Ask a lawyer