MEMORANDUM OF FAMILY SETTLEMENT

This Memorandum of Family Settlement is drawn up and signed at __________, in __________, on __________.

1. The Parties

The parties to this Memorandum are:

__________

Each of the persons named above is referred to in this Memorandum as a "Party" and all of them together as the "Parties". They are all members of __________ (the "Family").

2. Background

A. Antecedent title. __________

B. The dispute. __________

The Parties confirm that the differences described above were genuine, that each of them was asserting a claim honestly and in good faith, and that the arrangement recorded in this Memorandum was arrived at in order to bring those differences to an end and to preserve the peace and standing of the Family.

C. The arrangement. On __________, the Parties, acting voluntarily and with full knowledge of their respective claims, arrived at an arrangement for the settlement of those differences on the terms recorded in this Memorandum.

D. The arrangement has been acted upon. __________

E. Purpose of this Memorandum. The Parties now reduce the arrangement to writing so that there is a clear and dated record of it for their own information and for the information of any person who may need to know what was agreed and what was done — including the Sub-Registrar, the Halqa Patwari and the Circle Revenue Officer of the tehsil, the estate branch of any development authority or improvement trust that allotted a site described in Schedule A, the Estate Officer, U.T., Chandigarh, the Chandigarh Housing Board, the municipal corporation, municipal council or nagar panchayat concerned, the electricity distribution licensee, a bank, a company, a depository or a court.

3. What this document is, and what it is not

3.1 This Memorandum is a record. It records an arrangement that was arrived at on __________ and that has already been given effect to. It does not itself create, declare, assign, limit or extinguish any right, title or interest in any property.

3.2 Every right recognised in this Memorandum arises out of the arrangement itself and out of the antecedent title that each Party already had in the property, and not out of this Memorandum. The Parties are not transferring anything to one another by signing it; they are recording a division that has already taken place among persons who were already entitled.

3.3 The Parties acknowledge that whether a document requires registration is decided by what its words actually do and not by what the document is called, and that a document which itself creates, declares, assigns, limits or extinguishes any right, title or interest in immovable property of the value of one hundred rupees or upwards is compulsorily registrable under section 17(1)(b) of the Registration Act, 1908, and is inadmissible in evidence under section 49 of that Act if it is not registered. This Memorandum is not intended to be, and must not be read as, such a document.

3.4 The Parties further acknowledge that a mutation sanctioned by a Circle Revenue Officer under sections 34 to 36 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887, a permission or re-transfer recorded by a development authority or improvement trust in Punjab under section 43(7) of the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act, 1995, and a transfer of ownership or lease rights recorded by the Estate Officer, U.T., Chandigarh on the basis of a family settlement, are each entries of administrative and fiscal record. None of those offices decides title, and no such entry adds to or takes away from what this Memorandum records.

4. Personal law and completeness of the Parties

4.1 __________

4.2 Every member of the Family who has, or who claims, any right, title or interest that is affected by the arrangement recorded in this Memorandum is a Party to it. No such person has been left out, and no Party is aware of any other person who has or claims any such right.

5. Capacity and free consent

5.1 Each Party is of full age and of sound mind, and has signed this Memorandum personally or through a constituted attorney holding a specific power of attorney authorising the attorney to sign it.

5.2 No person who is a minor, and no person who is unable by reason of unsoundness of mind or any other incapacity to manage his or her own affairs, has any right, title or interest that is affected by the arrangement recorded in this Memorandum.

5.3 Each Party entered into the arrangement voluntarily, in good faith, and without coercion, undue influence, fraud or misrepresentation by any other Party, and each Party had a full and fair opportunity to take independent legal advice before doing so.

5.4 Each Party had, before agreeing to the arrangement, full knowledge of the properties described in Schedule A and of the claims of the other Parties, and no Party withheld from any other Party any fact material to the arrangement.

6. The property covered

6.1 The arrangement recorded in this Memorandum relates to the properties and assets described in Schedule A and to nothing else.

6.2 Any property in which the Parties, or any of them, have an interest that is not described in Schedule A is not affected by this Memorandum and continues to be held on the same footing as before.

6.3 The Parties confirm that the arrangement recorded in this Memorandum does not fragment any holding and does not divide any single residential unit into separate floors or apartments. They record that they are aware that section 8 of the East Punjab Holdings (Consolidation and Prevention of Fragmentation) Act, 1948 forbids land in a notified area from being transferred or partitioned so as to create a fragment, that section 9 of that Act makes a transfer or partition contrary to the Act void, and that rule 16 of the Chandigarh Estate Rules, 2007 prohibits fragmentation of a site.

6.4 The Parties further record that they are aware of the direction of the Supreme Court of India in Resident's Welfare Association v. Union Territory of Chandigarh, decided on 10 January 2023, that no memorandum of understanding, agreement or settlement among the co-owners of a residential unit in Chandigarh shall be registered, nor shall it be enforceable in law, for the purpose of bifurcating or dividing a single residential unit into floor-wise apartments. Nothing in this Memorandum is intended to have that purpose or that effect.

7. The allotment as recorded

7.1 Under the arrangement arrived at on __________, the properties described in Schedule A were allotted among the Parties in the manner set out in Schedule B.

7.2 Since that date, each Party has held, used and enjoyed the property so allotted to that Party separately and in severalty, to the exclusion of the other Parties, and has dealt with it as the sole owner of it.

7.3 Save as recorded in this Memorandum, no Party has paid, or is to pay, any consideration to any other Party in respect of the arrangement.

8. Liabilities and outgoings

8.1 Save as otherwise recorded in this Memorandum, with effect from __________ each Party bears the land revenue, house tax, water and sewerage charge, electricity charge, ground rent, development authority or improvement trust instalment and extension fee, Estate Office or Chandigarh Housing Board dues, maintenance charge and every other outgoing in respect of the property allotted to that Party, and shall keep the other Parties indemnified against any demand made on them in respect of it.

9. Release recorded, and a personal covenant

9.1 Under the arrangement arrived at on __________, each Party gave up, for himself or herself and for those claiming through him or her, every claim, demand, right, share and interest that he or she then had in the property allotted to any other Party. Each Party records that he or she has made no claim to any such property since that date, has not disturbed the possession of the Party to whom it was allotted, and has no subsisting claim to it.

9.2 The Parties recorded on that date that the arrangement was in full and final settlement of the differences described in Recital B, and no Party has since raised those differences in any forum, whether before a civil court, a revenue officer, a development authority or improvement trust, the Estate Officer, U.T., Chandigarh or any other authority.

9.3 Nothing in this Clause 9 affects any right of any Party in property that is not described in Schedule A.

9.4 A personal covenant, and nothing more. In addition to the record made in Clauses 9.1 and 9.2, each Party covenants with each other Party, personally and for those claiming through him or her, that he or she will not re-open the arrangement and will not disturb the possession of the Party to whom any property was allotted. That covenant is personal to the Parties. It is not intended to create, declare, assign, limit or extinguish, and does not create, declare, assign, limit or extinguish, any right, title or interest in any immovable property: every such right was dealt with by the arrangement itself on __________, and this Memorandum only records what was done.

10. Records, mutation and further assurance

10.1 To give effect to the arrangement in the public record, the Parties will approach __________, and will produce this Memorandum, its Schedules and their identity documents in support.

10.2 Each Party is in addition entitled to apply, in that Party's own name, for mutation, substitution or transfer of the record of the property allotted to that Party — to the Circle Revenue Officer of the tehsil, to the estate branch of the development authority or improvement trust that allotted the site, to the Estate Officer, U.T., Chandigarh, to the Chandigarh Housing Board, to the Sub-Registrar, to the property tax branch of the municipal corporation, municipal council or nagar panchayat concerned, to the electricity distribution licensee, to any bank, to any company or its registrar and transfer agent, and to any depository — and to produce this Memorandum in support.

10.3 Land in Punjab entered in a record of rights. Where any property described in Schedule A is such land, the Party to whom it was allotted shall report the acquisition to the Halqa Patwari of the estate. The Parties record that section 34 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887 requires such a report to be made, and that section 39 of that Act makes a person who fails to report within three months liable, at the discretion of the Collector, to a fine not exceeding five times the mutation fee that would have been payable.

10.4 A site in Punjab held on an allotment. Where any property described in Schedule A is a plot, house, SCO, SCF, booth or other site allotted by a development authority or an improvement trust, the Parties record that there is no entry in a record of rights to mutate and that the record which has to change is the Authority's own. Section 43(6) of the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act, 1995 keeps the land with the Authority until the whole of the consideration money, interest and other dues has been paid, and section 43(7) forbids the allottee from transferring any of his rights except with the previous permission of the Authority, on such terms and on payment of such fees as the Authority determines. The Parties will accordingly apply to the estate branch of the allotting authority on that authority's own proforma, will produce this Memorandum, the allotment or re-allotment letter and their identity documents, will each sign and swear every application, affidavit and undertaking that authority requires of a recorded allottee, and will bear the processing fee, transfer fee, extension fee and every other charge demanded in the shares recorded in Clause 11.3.

10.5 A site, building or tenement in Chandigarh. Where any property described in Schedule A is such a property, each Party shall sign and deliver the application for transfer of ownership or lease rights, the liability affidavit attested by a Notary Public and the indemnity bond witnessed by two witnesses that the Estate Officer, U.T., Chandigarh or the Chandigarh Housing Board requires on a transfer made on the basis of a family settlement, and shall attend before that office when called. Where the site is held on lease, or was allotted at concessional rates, the Parties further record that the transfer requires the prior written no-objection of the Estate Officer, that one-third of the unearned increase is payable to Government under rule 7(ii) of the Chandigarh Estate Rules, 2007 before any transfer deed is presented for registration, and that the exception in rule 7(iii) — under which the addition, deletion or substitution of the name of a mother, father, spouse, son or daughter is not a transfer at all — does not extend to a brother, a sister, a grandchild or a daughter-in-law. The Parties will co-operate in applying for that no-objection, will attend the hearing to which they are entitled before the unearned increase is assessed, and will bear the unearned increase, the transfer fee and every other charge demanded in the shares recorded in Clause 11.3.

10.6 Every Party shall, promptly and without any further consideration, sign and deliver every application, affidavit, no-objection certificate, indemnity, form and other document, and attend before any authority, that may reasonably be required to give full effect to the arrangement recorded in this Memorandum.

10.7 Each Party shall hand over to the Party entitled to it the original title deeds, allotment letters, jamabandi extracts, share certificates, passbooks and other documents relating to the property allotted to that Party, and shall on request provide the other Parties with copies of them.

10.8 The Parties record their understanding that an entry in a record of rights or an annual record is presumed to be true only until the contrary is proved (section 44, Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887), and that section 45 of that Act leaves a person aggrieved by an entry to institute a suit for a declaratory decree.

11. Stamp duty, value and registration

11.1 __________

11.2 Value adopted for stamp purposes. The value adopted by the Parties for the purpose of stamp duty on this Memorandum, item by item against Schedule A, is set out below. Where a collector rate has been taken, the rate, the office that published it and the date from which it took effect are stated; where a consideration or an equalisation payment exceeds the collector rate, the higher figure has been taken, that being the base the law requires.

__________

11.3 Who bears the cost. The stamp duty, if any, chargeable on this Memorandum under the law in force in __________, and any registration fee, pasting fee, facilitation charge, mutation fee, development authority or improvement trust processing and transfer fee, Estate Office transfer fee and one-third share of the unearned increase payable in consequence of the arrangement, shall be borne by the Parties in equal shares unless they agree otherwise in writing.

11.4 Assessment before purchase. The Parties record that they have been advised to obtain the assessment of the Sub-Registrar having jurisdiction on this draft before purchasing stamp paper or generating an e-stamp certificate; that an instrument which recites no value cannot be assessed at the counter, which is why Clause 11.2 states one; and that an instrument which is not duly stamped is inadmissible in evidence under section 35 of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 and is liable to be impounded under section 33 of that Act by any court and by every person in charge of a public office before whom it is produced.

12. Differences about this Memorandum

12.1 If any difference arises between the Parties about the meaning or the working of this Memorandum, they shall first try in good faith to resolve it among themselves, if necessary with the help of an elder of the Family or a mediator agreed between them.

12.2 Subject to Clause 12.1, and subject to the jurisdiction that the law confers on the court within whose local limits immovable property is situate, the courts at __________, subordinate to the Punjab and Haryana High Court at Chandigarh, shall have jurisdiction in respect of this Memorandum.

12.3 The Parties record that a question which a revenue officer is empowered to dispose of under the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887, including the partition of land under Chapter IX of that Act, is outside the jurisdiction of the civil court by force of section 158 of that Act; and that section 19 of the Capital of Punjab (Development and Regulation) Act, 1952 bars a civil court from entertaining a suit in respect of a matter which that Act empowers the Estate Officer or the Chief Administrator to determine. Clause 12.2 does not confer on the courts at __________ any jurisdiction that the law withholds from them.

13. General

13.1 This Memorandum, together with Schedules A and B, is the complete written record of the arrangement. No Party relies on any oral assurance that is not recorded in it.

13.2 This Memorandum may be signed in as many copies as there are Parties, each of which is an original, and each Party shall keep one. If it is presented for registration in Chandigarh it shall be presented in duplicate, with a photograph of each executant and each claimant affixed on every copy.

13.3 If any part of this Memorandum is found to be unenforceable, the rest of it continues to have effect.

13.4 Where a specific provision of this Memorandum deals with a particular property, liability or payment, that provision prevails over any general provision of this Memorandum.

SCHEDULE A — Properties and assets covered by the arrangement

__________

SCHEDULE B — Allotment as recorded

__________

SIGNATURES

Signed by each of the Parties named in Clause 1, at __________ on __________, in the presence of the witnesses named below.

The persons who must sign are those, and only those, named in Clause 1. They are, again:

__________

Count the signature panels below against that list before the executed copy leaves the room. Write out each Party's name exactly as it is numbered in Clause 1 — one panel to a Party, as many panels as there are Parties, no more and no fewer. A Party signing through a constituted attorney is described as "[name of the Party], through the constituted attorney [name of the attorney]", and the attorney signs.

Party No. ______ Name in full: ______________________________________________

Signature: ______________________________ ID produced: ____________________

Party No. ______ Name in full: ______________________________________________

Signature: ______________________________ ID produced: ____________________

Party No. ______ Name in full: ______________________________________________

Signature: ______________________________ ID produced: ____________________

(Copy the pair of lines above as many further times as there are Parties still to sign. Strike through and initial any panel that is not used, so that no blank panel remains on an executed copy.)

WITNESSES

Each witness signs below, in the presence of the Parties, having seen each Party sign. Neither witness is a Party and neither takes any benefit under the arrangement.

Witness 1

Signature: ______________________

Name: __________

Capacity: __________

Address: __________

ID produced: ______________________

Witness 2

Signature: ______________________

Name: __________

Address: __________

ID produced: ______________________