Your matter is argued in India by advocates enrolled with the Bar Council of Punjab & Haryana, while you follow it from wherever you live. You are not asked to fly in for routine hearings.
You can do all of it from abroad. We begin with a legal notice, then file a suit for possession and mesne profits, usually with an application for injunction so the property cannot be sold or built on while the case runs. You execute a Power of Attorney in favour of a person you trust or of our advocate, and we appear at hearings for you. A physical appearance is normally needed only if the court records your personal evidence, and even then it can often be scheduled around one visit.
Under Article 65 of the Limitation Act 1963 a suit for possession of immovable property based on title is generally to be filed within twelve years of the possession becoming adverse to you. That is a long window, but it is not unlimited, and adverse possession is exactly what long silence can create. If someone has been in occupation of your property for years, have it reviewed now rather than on your next visit to India.
Very often it is not. In Suraj Lamp & Industries v. State of Haryana (2011) the Supreme Court held that a sale through a General Power of Attorney, agreement to sell and will does not by itself transfer title — only a registered sale deed does. That judgment came out of this very region and is central to a large number of NRI property matters here. If a GPA has been misused, the transfer and any consequent mutation can be challenged.
Only up to a point, and this is where many NRI cases are lost. Following Janki Vashdeo Bhojwani v. Indusind Bank, a Power of Attorney holder may depose about acts they personally performed, but not about facts that are within your own personal knowledge. We draft the plaint and the Power of Attorney with that limit in mind, and tell you at the outset the narrow points on which your own evidence — by video conferencing where the court permits, or on a single visit — will be required.
Yes, and it is far cheaper than litigation. We carry out a title and revenue-record check — jamabandi, mutation entries, encumbrances and current possession — and report on what is recorded against your property today. Many NRI clients ask us to do this once a year on holdings they cannot visit.
Tell us about your matter and an enrolled advocate will review it and come back to you with a written view — we work around your time zone, not ours.