Kaagazaat

Caretaker and Permissive Occupation Agreement (Rakhwali Nama)

At a glance

Price: ₹1,499 · GST included
Stamp duty: Punjab discontinued physical stamp paper; duty is via e-stamp through SHCIL — under Rs 500 self-generated at shcilestamp.com, higher denominations from an authorised centre.
Registration: Not compulsory, but worth doing: s.17(1)(d) covers only a lease year-to-year, over a year, or with yearly rent; a s.52 Easements Act licence creates no interest and reserves none — the 11-month ceiling is a second safeguard.
Witnesses: Two attesting witnesses: adults of sound mind, not a party, the Owner's attorney, or anyone living on or claiming the property.

₹1,499

GST included

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Also called

Rakhwali Nama
Rakhwala Agreement
Nigrani Nama
Dekh Rekh Samjhauta
Makan di Rakhwali da Samjhauta
Zameen di Dekh Bhaal da Iqrarnama
Chowkidar Agreement
Chowkidari Nama

Whether you can fill this in here

You can fill this in here

You can fill this one in on this site, and read the whole draft on screen before you decide anything about it. It is a carefully drafted template; it is not advice about your own facts.

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Why you need it

When you need it

Own Punjab property, live outside India, someone looks after it informally? A phone-call arrangement is no document — an undocumented occupant is the commonest way Punjab NRIs lose property. Article 65, Limitation Act, 1963 gives an owner 12 years to sue for possession; section 27 extinguishes it after. Time doesn't run while permissive, but once hostile the clock starts, unnoticed abroad. This records that the occupant holds by your permission, re-acknowledged every term — the cheapest defence against adverse possession or an oral gift. It also blocks drift into tenancy — a caretaker becoming a "paying tenant" or entering the khasra girdawari as cultivator. This reserves no rent, refuses exclusive possession, bars mutation or any revenue entry in his name — a bare licence under section 52, Easements Act, 1882; no interest passes. Keep the term to 11 months and renew: beyond a year, or with yearly rent, a lease is compulsorily registrable under section 17(1)(d), Registration Act, 1908 — the template enforces this ceiling. Renewal is Part B (both sign, fresh dates); Part A is the Caretaker's yearly acknowledgment (he alone signs) and extends nothing — sign both. Buy the e-stamp before anyone signs — the commonest way an NRI document is wasted. Section 17, Stamp Act, 1899 requires stamping before execution for any India-signed instrument; section 18's grace needs EVERY signatory abroad. Since the Caretaker signs in Punjab, buy the e-stamp first, courier it abroad for the Owner's signature. Do NOT use for: rent (a tenancy, however labelled); a farmer paid cash or crop-share (a theka, registrable above 11 months); a sale or litigation power (a POA — non-relative sale costs 2% of consideration or the Collector rate, item (f), entry 48, Schedule I-A, Indian Stamp (Punjab Amendment) Act, 2023); gifting in instalments (a gift deed or will instead); an occupant claiming tenancy (needs a suit for declaration/possession); more than three owners (caps at two co-owners); or a Chandigarh sector property (Estate Officer, Capital of Punjab (Development and Regulation) Act, 1952). Also: under FEMA (Non-debt Instruments) Rules, 2019 and RBI FED Master Direction No. 12/2015-16, an NRI/OCI may buy any Indian property except agricultural land, plantation or a farm house, but may inherit any — a foreign-passport holder with agricultural land should answer inheritance or pre-emigration purchase.

See stamp duty, registration and witnesses

What follows is written for Punjab. It states the position there rather than describing how it varies, so the amounts below are the ones that apply — worth confirming at the sub-registrar’s office, because rates change. If the property is anywhere else in India, none of this is yours.

Stamp duty

Punjab discontinued physical stamp paper; duty is via e-stamp through SHCIL — under Rs 500 self-generated at shcilestamp.com, higher denominations from an authorised centre. Buy it in the Owner's name, engross the Agreement, then sign. Which section governs matters more than the figure: if ANY party signs in India (the Caretaker almost always does), section 17 requires stamping before execution — section 18 gives nothing. Buy the e-stamp first, courier it abroad for the Owner's signature. ONLY if every signatory signs outside India does section 18(1)'s three-month window apply, from receipt, not signing. Not a lease — no exclusive possession, no rent — so no Article 35 lease duty; it's Article 5 (agreement not otherwise provided for), a small fixed figure. Kaagazaat doesn't print it since the Revenue table carries no date or notification number — check the Sub-Registrar's counter, adjudicated under sections 31-32 if disputed. If it in substance hands over exclusive possession for a term, it can be recharacterised as a lease — 4% of average annual rent under one year (figures above are inconsistent; confirm at the counter). Keep rent nil and possession non-exclusive. Section 35 makes an unstamped instrument inadmissible and unusable by any public officer, with a penalty up to 10x the deficient duty on impounding. A power of attorney authorising sale to anyone but a spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent or grandchild costs 2% of consideration or the Collector rate, whichever higher — item (f), entry 48, Schedule I-A, Indian Stamp (Punjab Amendment) Act, 2023, gazetted 15 January 2024. Chandigarh: Punjab-only — the 2023 Amendment doesn't run there. Chandigarh applies the Stamp Act, 1899 as extended, e-stamped through SHCIL, Deputy Commissioner as Collector (ss.31-32); a sector site under the Capital of Punjab (Development and Regulation) Act, 1952 is the Estate Officer's.

Registration

Not compulsory, but worth doing: s.17(1)(d) covers only a lease year-to-year, over a year, or with yearly rent; a s.52 Easements Act licence creates no interest and reserves none — the 11-month ceiling is a second safeguard. Optional under s.18. Where: the Sub-Registrar or Joint Sub-Registrar of the tehsil, via NGDRS at igrpunjab.gov.in (all 22 districts). Fee: 1% of stated value, capped Rs 2,00,000 (undated, possibly stale) — assessed at the counter. Time limit: s.23 requires presentation within four months; s.25 allows four more on a fine up to 10x the fee. Separate from stamping: an India-signed instrument must be stamped BEFORE signature (s.17), only an entirely-abroad execution getting s.18's three months. Either way, record it with the Halqa Patwari (a rapat in the roznamcha waqiati; municipal or allotted property goes to that office instead) — no mutation arises since nothing transferred, but object before the Tehsildar or Naib Tehsildar (Assistant Collectors, 2nd grade, Land Revenue Act, 1887), appeal to the Collector, Divisional Commissioner, then Financial Commissioner. Check the jamabandi free at jamabandi.punjab.gov.in; a certified fard comes from the tehsil Fard Kendra (in flux since April 2025's Sewa Kendra shift). Chandigarh: at the Sub-Registrar, Estate Office complex, Sector 17; a sector site under the Capital of Punjab (Development and Regulation) Act, 1952 additionally needs the Estate Officer — clause 15.3's revenue-appeal route doesn't exist there.

Notarisation

Not legally required — valid without it — but notarise anyway, since a dated register entry is an independent record. Notarise Part A's acknowledgment every term, and Part B's renewal too. It doesn't stamp the document — an India-signed deed must already be e-stamped under section 17; only an entirely-abroad execution gets section 18's three months from receipt. A power of attorney to sign, supervise or present for registration needs authentication under section 33(1)(c), Registration Act, 1908 by a Notary, Court, Magistrate or Indian Consul — Punjab Sub-Registrars often insist on consular attestation despite India's Hague Apostille status; see G. Kalawathi Bai v. G. Shashikala, 2025 INSC 851 on dual-capacity attorneys. Sign every page; cross-sign passport photos of all parties; photograph the Caretaker with his Aadhaar beside the signed page; email a scanned copy for a dated record abroad. Chandigarh notaries are Central Government-appointed (District Court, Sector 43); same Notaries Rules, 1956 practice.

Witnesses

Two attesting witnesses: adults of sound mind, not a party, the Owner's attorney, or anyone living on or claiming the property. Record full name, parentage, address, Aadhaar and mobile for each — traceable in 2038, not a passer-by or the Caretaker's own brother. If registering, this is separate from registration: sections 32 and 34, Registration Act, 1908 require executants to appear before the Sub-Registrar within the section 23 window, identified, with two identifying witnesses; every signing co-owner must appear or send an authenticated attorney. Both Second Schedule forms need two witnesses each; reusing the same two strengthens the record. Same in Chandigarh — only the office differs.

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CARETAKER AND PERMISSIVE OCCUPATION AGREEMENT
(RAKHWALI NAMA)

A bare licence under section 52 of the Indian Easements Act, 1882.
This is NOT a lease, NOT a tenancy, NOT an agreement to sell and NOT a power of attorney. No interest in immovable property passes under it.

THIS AGREEMENT is made at Jalandhar on 3 April 2026

BETWEEN

Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, son of Sardar Joginder Singh Sandhu, a Non-Resident Indian holding an Indian passport, holding passport No. Z4821956, ordinarily resident at 42 Windermere Crescent, Southall, Middlesex UB1 2QT, United Kingdom, and having an address in India at House No. 118, Guru Nanak Nagar, Phagwara, District Kapurthala, Punjab 144401, PAN AFZPS4821K, contactable at gurpreet.sandhu@example.com and +44 7700 900482 (hereinafter called "the Owner", which expression shall, where more than one person is named above, mean all of them jointly and each of them severally, and shall, where the context admits, include the heirs, executors, administrators, legal representatives, attorneys and assigns of each of them) of the FIRST PART;

AND

Balwinder Singh, son of Shri Mohinder Singh, resident of Village Nurmahal, Tehsil Phillaur, District Jalandhar, Punjab 144039, holding Aadhaar No. 4821 9563 7104, mobile +91 XXXXX XXXXX, being the Owner's neighbour and long-standing family acquaintance (hereinafter called "the Caretaker") of the SECOND PART.

The Owner and the Caretaker are together called "the Parties".

RECITALS

A. The Owner is the sole and absolute owner in lawful possession of the immovable property fully described in the FIRST SCHEDULE below (hereinafter "the Property"), being a residential house situated in the revenue estate or locality of Village Kang Khurd, Tehsil Phillaur, District Jalandhar, Punjab.

B. The Owner acquired the Property by inheritance from a person who was resident in India. The Owner declares that the Property is held in conformity with the Foreign Exchange Management (Non-debt Instruments) Rules, 2019 and with the Reserve Bank of India FED Master Direction No. 12/2015-16 (updated 6 June 2022), under which a Non-Resident Indian or an Overseas Citizen of India may acquire agricultural land, plantation property or a farm house only by inheritance and not by purchase, and may acquire other immovable property by purchase.

C. The Owner resides outside India and is therefore unable to remain physically present at the Property. The Property is presently locked, unoccupied and unattended, and is by reason of the Owner's absence exposed to encroachment, dilapidation, pilferage and unauthorised occupation.

D. The Owner desires to place the Property under the care and watch of a person of trust for its safe custody and upkeep, and the Caretaker has agreed to render such care and watch upon the terms recorded below.

E. The Parties intend to create a bare, personal and revocable licence and nothing whatsoever beyond it.

F. The Parties record that they have read and understood clause 1 below, and that neither of them intends this Agreement to operate as a lease, a tenancy or a transfer of any interest in immovable property.

NOW THIS AGREEMENT WITNESSES AND IT IS AGREED as follows:

NATURE OF THIS AGREEMENT: LICENCE, NOT LEASE

1.1 The Owner hereby grants to the Caretaker a bare, personal, non-exclusive and revocable licence, being a licence within the meaning of section 52 of the Indian Easements Act, 1882, to enter upon the Property and to do upon it the acts described in this Agreement, and for no other purpose whatsoever.

1.2 This Agreement does not create, and is not intended by either Party to create, any lease, tenancy, sub-tenancy, right of occupancy, easement, mortgage, charge, lien, trust, partnership, joint venture, agreement to sell, or any right, title or interest of any nature in or over the Property. No interest in immovable property passes under this Agreement.

1.3 Legal possession of the Property remains with the Owner at all times and throughout the Term. The presence of the Caretaker upon the Property is the possession of the Owner, exercised through the Caretaker as the Owner's licensee and custodian, and is not and shall never be possession by the Caretaker in his own right.

1.4 The Caretaker is not granted exclusive possession of the Property or of any part of it. The Owner, and any person authorised in writing by the Owner, may enter upon and inspect the whole of the Property at any time and without prior notice, and the Caretaker shall afford such entry and inspection immediately on demand.

1.5 No rent, premium, salami, pagri, security deposit, advance or other consideration of any kind whatsoever is reserved to or payable to the Owner by the Caretaker under this Agreement or under any collateral understanding, and none shall be accepted by the Owner or tendered by the Caretaker at any time. Any sum tendered by the Caretaker to the Owner or to the Owner's attorney, by whatever name described, shall not be received and shall in no event be treated as rent.

1.6 If, notwithstanding the express intention of the Parties recorded above, any authority or court were to hold this Agreement to be a lease, the Parties record that the Term granted is less than one year, that no yearly rent is reserved, and that the arrangement is accordingly not one falling within section 17(1)(d) of the Registration Act, 1908.

TERM AND RENEWAL

2.1 The licence granted by this Agreement shall commence on 4 April 2026 and shall stand determined on 5 April 2026, both days inclusive (hereinafter "the Term"), unless sooner revoked in accordance with clause 8.

2.2 The Term has been deliberately fixed at less than one year. The Parties do not intend, and shall not be taken to have intended, a licence or tenancy from year to year or for any term exceeding one year, and nothing in this Agreement shall be read as reserving a yearly rent.

2.3 There is no automatic renewal, no deemed continuation and no holding over. The licence may be renewed only by a fresh writing signed by both Parties in the form set out in PART B of the SECOND SCHEDULE, which must state a fresh commencement date and a fresh expiry date not more than eleven months apart, or by a fresh agreement in these terms. The acknowledgment in PART A of the SECOND SCHEDULE is signed by the Caretaker alone and renews nothing.

2.4 The Caretaker acknowledges that if he remains upon the Property after the expiry of the Term without a fresh writing signed by the Owner, his presence from the day following expiry is unauthorised, is a trespass, and confers no right of any kind upon him.

EXTENT OF THE PERMISSION

3.1 During the Term and subject to this Agreement, the Caretaker may reside in the servant quarter or outhouse forming part of the Property, and in no other part of it.

3.1A The permission given by clause 3.1 is further confined to the following part of the Property and to no other part of it: The single room in the servant quarter at the rear of the plot, measuring about 10 feet by 12 feet, with the attached washroom and the open strip in front of it up to the boundary wall. The Caretaker shall not enter or use any other part of the Property except so far as is necessary to perform his duties under clause 4.

3.2 The only persons who may stay upon the Property with the Caretaker are: the Caretaker, his wife Smt. Rajwinder Kaur and their two minor children, and no other person. Every such person is upon the Property on the same footing as the Caretaker, by the Owner's bare permission and not otherwise, and the Caretaker is answerable to the Owner for the conduct of each of them.

3.3 The Caretaker shall not sublet, assign, transfer, mortgage, charge, part with or share possession of the Property or of any part of it, and shall not admit or permit to remain upon the Property any tenant, sub-tenant, licensee, lodger, paying guest, workman in residence, or any other person whatsoever, whether for payment or gratuitously.

3.4 The Caretaker shall use the permission granted only for the care and watch of the Property. He shall not carry on any trade, business, manufacture, storage, workshop, dairy, cattle-shed, godown, shop, hostel or commercial activity of any nature upon the Property, and shall not use it for any unlawful or immoral purpose.

DUTIES OF THE CARETAKER

The Caretaker shall, during the Term and at his own risk as to his personal effects:

(a) keep the Property securely locked and closed at all times when nobody authorised is inside it, and keep the boundary wall, gate, fencing, doors, windows and locks intact and in working condition;

(b) keep the Property clean, free of rubbish and stagnant water and, save so far as clause 4A permits cultivation, free of overgrowth, and take reasonable care to prevent damage by rain, seepage, termites, rodents, stray cattle and fire;

(c) prevent, resist and immediately report any encroachment, trespass, unauthorised entry, unauthorised construction, cutting of trees, removal of soil or dumping of material upon the Property, and inform the Owner of any such event by telephone and in writing within forty-eight hours of its coming to his notice;

(d) hold the keys listed in the THIRD SCHEDULE as the Owner's bailee, produce them on demand, and never hand them to any third person without the Owner's prior written instruction;

(e) permit the Owner and any person authorised in writing by the Owner to enter and inspect the Property at any time without notice, and afford access to any surveyor, valuer, patwari, official or intending purchaser sent by the Owner;

(f) receive, preserve and forward to the Owner within seven days every notice, summons, demand, bill or communication of any kind delivered at the Property or affixed upon it, and inform the Owner by telephone on the same day if any such document appears to concern title, tax, encroachment or legal proceedings;

(g) not incur any expenditure on the Property, and not engage any workman, contractor or agency in respect of it, without the Owner's prior written approval, save only such immediate expenditure as is necessary to prevent imminent damage, which shall be reported to the Owner within twenty-four hours of being incurred;

(h) keep no account, and make no claim, for any sum spent without prior written approval except as permitted by sub-clause (g) above;

(i) attend upon the Property, and send the Owner dated photographs of it, at the intervals set out in sub-clause (l) below;

(j) sign and deliver to the Owner the acknowledgment in PART A of the SECOND SCHEDULE as required by clause 7.3;

(k) deliver up the Property to the Owner or to the Owner's attorney immediately on revocation or expiry, in the same condition in which it was received, reasonable wear and tear excepted; and

(l) perform the following further duties specifically agreed between the Parties in respect of this Property: Open and air the house on the first Sunday of every month and send the Owner five dated photographs by WhatsApp the same day; run the tubewell motor for ten minutes each week during the dry season; get the terrace waterproofing checked before every monsoon and report the cost before spending; keep the front gate padlocked with the Owner's lock at all times when nobody is inside.

4A. CULTIVATION AND LAND

4A.1 As regards any agricultural land forming part of the Property, no agricultural land forms part of the Property and no question of cultivation arises.

Questions about this document

Does the Caretaker and Permissive Occupation Agreement (Rakhwali Nama) need stamp paper or stamp duty in Punjab?

Which section governs matters more than the figure: if ANY party signs in India (the Caretaker almost always does), section 17 requires stamping before execution — section 18 gives nothing. Buy the e-stamp first, courier it abroad for the Owner's signature. ONLY if every signatory signs outside India does section 18(1)'s three-month window apply, from receipt, not signing.

Not a lease — no exclusive possession, no rent — so no Article 35 lease duty; it's Article 5 (agreement not otherwise provided for), a small fixed figure. Kaagazaat doesn't print it since the Revenue table carries no date or notification number — check the Sub-Registrar's counter, adjudicated under sections 31-32 if disputed.

If it in substance hands over exclusive possession for a term, it can be recharacterised as a lease — 4% of average annual rent under one year (figures above are inconsistent; confirm at the counter). Keep rent nil and possession non-exclusive.

Section 35 makes an unstamped instrument inadmissible and unusable by any public officer, with a penalty up to 10x the deficient duty on impounding.

A power of attorney authorising sale to anyone but a spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent or grandchild costs 2% of consideration or the Collector rate, whichever higher — item (f), entry 48, Schedule I-A, Indian Stamp (Punjab Amendment) Act, 2023, gazetted 15 January 2024.

Chandigarh: Punjab-only — the 2023 Amendment doesn't run there. Chandigarh applies the Stamp Act, 1899 as extended, e-stamped through SHCIL, Deputy Commissioner as Collector (ss.31-32); a sector site under the Capital of Punjab (Development and Regulation) Act, 1952 is the Estate Officer's.

Does the Caretaker and Permissive Occupation Agreement (Rakhwali Nama) need registration in Punjab?

Where: the Sub-Registrar or Joint Sub-Registrar of the tehsil, via NGDRS at igrpunjab.gov.in (all 22 districts). Fee: 1% of stated value, capped Rs 2,00,000 (undated, possibly stale) — assessed at the counter.

Time limit: s.23 requires presentation within four months; s.25 allows four more on a fine up to 10x the fee. Separate from stamping: an India-signed instrument must be stamped BEFORE signature (s.17), only an entirely-abroad execution getting s.18's three months.

Either way, record it with the Halqa Patwari (a rapat in the roznamcha waqiati; municipal or allotted property goes to that office instead) — no mutation arises since nothing transferred, but object before the Tehsildar or Naib Tehsildar (Assistant Collectors, 2nd grade, Land Revenue Act, 1887), appeal to the Collector, Divisional Commissioner, then Financial Commissioner. Check the jamabandi free at jamabandi.punjab.gov.in; a certified fard comes from the tehsil Fard Kendra (in flux since April 2025's Sewa Kendra shift).

Chandigarh: at the Sub-Registrar, Estate Office complex, Sector 17; a sector site under the Capital of Punjab (Development and Regulation) Act, 1952 additionally needs the Estate Officer — clause 15.3's revenue-appeal route doesn't exist there.

What does the Caretaker and Permissive Occupation Agreement (Rakhwali Nama) cost on Kaagazaat?

₹1,499, GST included.

Launch period: downloads are free for now. The prices shown apply once payments open.

Does the Caretaker and Permissive Occupation Agreement (Rakhwali Nama) need witnesses?

If registering, this is separate from registration: sections 32 and 34, Registration Act, 1908 require executants to appear before the Sub-Registrar within the section 23 window, identified, with two identifying witnesses; every signing co-owner must appear or send an authenticated attorney.

Both Second Schedule forms need two witnesses each; reusing the same two strengthens the record. Same in Chandigarh — only the office differs.

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