MUKHTIARNAMA-E-AAM
GENERAL POWER OF ATTORNEY — MANAGEMENT ONLY, WITH NO POWER TO SELL IMMOVABLE PROPERTY
READ THIS BEFORE SIGNING
This deed hands your signature to another person. Everything the Attorney does within the powers below binds you exactly as if you had done it yourself.
This deed carries NO power to sell immovable property. The Attorney cannot sell, agree to sell, mortgage, gift, exchange, partition, relinquish or long-lease any land, house, plot or flat of yours, cannot take an earnest money or a sale advance, and cannot hand possession to a buyer or a financier. That is deliberate. It is the reason this deed is cheap to stamp and safe to leave in the country while you are not in it. Do not let anyone add a sale power to it by hand.
There is exactly one sale power this deed can ever carry, and it is not over property. If — and only if — you choose the second option under "Shares, securities and mutual funds", the Attorney may buy and sell shares, units and securities in your existing accounts, with every rupee of the proceeds credited to your own bank account and no security put into the Attorney's name. If you did not choose that option, this deed authorises no sale of anything at all.
Even a Mukhtiarnama that did grant a power to sell land would transfer nothing. In Suraj Lamp & Industries Ltd. v. State of Haryana, decided on 11 October 2011 and reported at (2012) 1 SCC 656, the Supreme Court held that the sale-agreement, general-power-of-attorney and will method of transferring immovable property conveys no title, and that title passes only under a duly stamped and registered deed of conveyance. Nobody should buy from, or lend against, a power of attorney treated as though it were a sale deed.
Never sign a blank page or a blank stamp paper. Keep the original in your own custody and give the Attorney an attested copy unless the original is genuinely needed at a counter. Put an expiry date on it. Revoke it in writing the day it is no longer needed.
THIS DEED OF GENERAL POWER OF ATTORNEY (MUKHTIARNAMA-E-AAM) is executed on __________ at __________, and relates to my affairs and to my property situated in __________.
1. Parties
1.1 The Principal — __________, __________, aged __________ years, resident of __________ (referred to in this deed as "the Principal", "I", "me" and "my").
1.2 The Attorney — __________, __________, aged __________ years, resident of __________. Relationship to me: __________.
1.4 One Principal, and one only. This deed is executed by one person, for that person's own rights, and it can carry no more. Where land, a house or a plot is held jointly — and in the Doaba most ancestral khewats are — every co-sharer who wants an attorney must execute a separate Mukhtiarnama of their own. A co-sharer who has not signed a deed is not bound by this one, and nothing done under this deed touches that co-sharer's share.
2. Why I am making this deed
2.1 I execute this deed of my own free will, without coercion, fraud or undue influence, and after understanding its effect. I am of sound mind, and my age is the figure written against my name in clause 1.1. Section 183 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 permits only a person who has attained the age of majority according to the law to which he is subject, and who is of sound mind, to employ an agent. If the age written in clause 1.1 is under eighteen, this deed creates no agency whatever and must not be signed; a guardian dealing with a minor's property needs separate advice and, for immovable property, the permission of the competent court.
2.2 I am unable, or find it inconvenient, to attend personally to the matters described in this deed.
2.3 __________
2.4 I therefore nominate, constitute and appoint the Attorney to be my true and lawful attorney — mera sacha te kanooni mukhtiar — to do in my name and on my behalf only the acts set out under the headings "Powers granted" and "Immovable property — management only", subject to the limits set out under the headings "What this deed does not do", "Immovable property — management only" and "Absolute limits, and the exclusion of the power to sell immovable property".
3. What this deed does not do
3.1 This deed transfers nothing. It creates an agency and no more. It does not sell, convey, assign, gift or otherwise transfer any interest in any property of mine to the Attorney or to anybody else, and no person may treat it, or any receipt or agreement produced with it, as a conveyance. Following Suraj Lamp & Industries Ltd. v. State of Haryana, (2012) 1 SCC 656, an interest in immovable property passes only under a duly stamped and registered instrument of transfer.
3.2 Nothing in this deed gives the Attorney any beneficial interest in any asset of mine. The Attorney holds any money, document, key or title paper of mine that comes into the Attorney's hands for me alone, as a mere custodian.
3.3 The Attorney cannot do anything that I could not lawfully do myself, and has no authority in relation to any asset greater than my own share or right in it. Where I hold land jointly with others, the Attorney's authority extends to my share alone and to nothing belonging to any other co-sharer.
3.4 Every act must be done in my name and expressed to be so. The Attorney shall sign as: "__________, by __________, constituted attorney". A signature by the Attorney in the Attorney's own name alone does not bind me.
3.5 No entry in the Attorney's own name. The Attorney has no authority to procure, consent to or acquiesce in any mutation, khata, allotment, re-allotment or record entry that shows the Attorney, or any relative or associate of the Attorney, as the owner, allottee or person in possession of any property of mine. Every entry the Attorney applies for must continue to show me as the owner.
3.6 This deed does not replace the forms and formalities of any bank, Sub-Registrar, Tehsildar, Estate Office, depository, court or government office. It supports them.
4. Powers granted
4.1 I authorise the Attorney to do the following in my name, and nothing beyond them:
Everyday and administrative matters — __________.
4.2 In relation to any matter authorised above, and only such a matter, the Attorney may sign, submit, collect and receive the applications, forms, affidavits, undertakings, receipts, acknowledgements and correspondence reasonably required to complete it, appear before the officer concerned, and pay the fees, charges and stamp duty it attracts out of funds I make available.
4.3 No power in this deed extends to any matter other than those expressly granted under the headings "Powers granted" and "Immovable property — management only". A general expression anywhere in this deed is to be read as limited to the specific powers actually granted and never as enlarging them.
5. Immovable property — management only
5.1 Default position. Except to the extent expressly authorised in this clause, the Attorney has no authority whatever in relation to any immovable property of mine. No power over immovable property arises under this deed at all unless the property is described in the Schedule at the end of this deed.
6. Absolute limits, and the exclusion of the power to sell immovable property
6.1 The power to sell immovable property is excluded, and its exclusion is the substance of this deed. Whatever else this deed says, and however widely any expression in it might otherwise be read, the Attorney shall never sell, agree to sell, convey, transfer, assign, exchange, gift, settle, release, relinquish, surrender, partition, mortgage, charge, hypothecate, deposit title deeds in respect of, create any lien over, grant any lease exceeding eleven months of, or otherwise create or part with any interest in any immovable property of mine; shall never receive any earnest money, advance, deposit or sale consideration in respect of any such property; and shall never deliver possession of any such property to a purchaser, a financier or anyone claiming through them. No person may deal with the Attorney on the footing that this deed authorises a sale of immovable property, and any instrument purporting to be executed under this deed that effects or agrees to effect such a transfer is void and does not bind me.
6.2 The single exception, and it reaches no land. Where clause 4.1 under the heading "Shares, securities and mutual funds" expressly authorises the Attorney to buy and sell shares, units and securities in my existing accounts, that power stands, on the conditions stated there and no others: the proceeds are credited to my own bank account alone, and no security passes into the Attorney's name. Nothing in this clause, and nothing anywhere else in this deed, permits the sale of any immovable property of mine in any circumstances.
6.3 The Attorney shall also never:
(a) make a gift, settlement or donation of any money or property of mine to anybody, including to the Attorney;
(b) make, alter or revoke a will for me, or do any act personal to me such as adoption, marriage, divorce, or the giving of consent under a personal law;
(c) borrow money in my name, stand surety, give any guarantee, or pledge or hypothecate any asset of mine;
(d) transfer, or procure the transfer of, any asset of mine into the Attorney's own name or into the name of the Attorney's spouse, child, parent or sibling, or into any entity in which the Attorney has an interest;
(e) receive or hold my money in the Attorney's own account, or mix my money with the Attorney's own money;
(f) exercise any power for the Attorney's own benefit, or in a matter in which the Attorney's interest conflicts with mine, unless I consent in writing to that specific transaction after being told of the conflict;
(g) sign a blank instrument, a blank stamp paper or a blank cheque, or deposit this deed with any person as security;
(h) act in relation to any property I hold as a trustee, nominee, karta or guardian for another;
(i) appoint a substitute attorney except as clause 11 expressly permits; or
(j) exercise any power before this deed takes effect under clause 7.1, or after it has expired, been revoked or otherwise terminated.
7. When this deed takes effect, and the two clocks that run from its arrival in India
7.1 This deed takes effect on the date of its execution. Stamping is not a condition of its coming into effect. An agency arises under the Indian Contract Act, 1872 on execution and acceptance, and section 35 of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 goes only to whether the instrument may be received in evidence and whether a public officer may act upon it. Where this deed is executed outside India, it must be stamped in India within three months of the date on which it is first received in India, under section 18 of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899; until it is duly stamped, section 35 of that Act prevents it being received in evidence and prevents any public officer acting upon it, but the authority it confers dates from execution and not from stamping.
7.2 It remains in force until it is revoked or otherwise terminated as set out below.
7.3 If this deed is to be registered, a second clock runs and it is not the stamping clock. Registration of this deed is not compulsory. If it is to be registered, section 23 of the Registration Act, 1908 requires it to be presented within four months from the date of its execution. Where the deed is executed outside India, section 26 of that Act is the provision that saves it: the registering officer may accept it where it is presented within four months after its arrival in India and he is satisfied that it was in fact executed outside India. If that period too is missed, an application lies to the Registrar under section 25, who may direct its acceptance within a further four months on payment of a fine of up to ten times the proper registration fee. The section 18 stamping clock and the section 26 registration clock both run from the day this deed arrives in India, so a single diary entry — the day the courier lands — covers both.
8. Revocation and termination
8.1 This deed is revocable. I may revoke it at any time, with or without giving reasons, by written notice to the Attorney. It is not granted for consideration, it gives the Attorney no interest in its subject matter, and nothing in it is intended to attract section 202 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872.
8.2 How a revocation takes effect. A revocation is not complete merely because I have decided on it. Under section 208 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 the termination of an agency does not take effect as against the Attorney before it becomes known to the Attorney, nor as against third persons before it becomes known to them; section 203 permits revocation before the authority has been exercised so as to bind me; section 206 requires reasonable notice; and section 207 allows a revocation to be express or implied from conduct, which is what gives the public notice and the intimations below their effect. If and when I revoke this deed, I or my representatives shall therefore:
(a) give written notice of revocation to the Attorney at the address recorded in this deed, and take back the original deed and every copy of it;
(b) publish a notice of revocation in a newspaper circulating in the district in which the property is situated and in which the powers were exercised, in English and in Punjabi;
(c) give written intimation to every bank, authority, court, registry and person known to have acted or to be likely to act on this deed, and in particular to the Sub-Registrar concerned, to the Tehsildar and the Halqa Patwari of the estate in which the land lies, or to the Estate Officer where the property is a Chandigarh sector site; and
(d) if this deed was registered, execute and register a deed of revocation at the same office and file intimation of it there.
8.3 Automatic termination. This deed terminates on my revoking it, on the Attorney renouncing it in writing, on the completion of the business for which it was given, on my death, on my being adjudged of unsound mind, on my being adjudicated insolvent, or on the Attorney's death or unsoundness of mind (section 201 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872), and by agreement between us also on the Attorney being adjudicated insolvent.
8.4 On my death or on my becoming of unsound mind, the Attorney must stop acting at once and must take reasonable steps on my behalf to protect my interests and those of my legal representatives, as required by section 209 of that Act.
9. Mental incapacity
9.1 Indian law has no enduring or lasting power of attorney. The authority given by this deed ends if I become of unsound mind, under section 201 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872. This deed cannot be used to manage my affairs after I have lost mental capacity, and nobody should rely on it for that purpose.
9.2 If that happens, my family should use the route the law then provides — a nominated representative or an advance directive under the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, limited guardianship under section 14 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, guardianship under the National Trust Act, 1999 where it applies, or an application to the competent court. This deed is not a substitute for any of those.
10. The Attorney's duties
10.1 The Attorney shall act in good faith, only within these powers, only in my name and only for my benefit, and shall follow my directions and, in their absence, the custom prevailing in similar business — sections 211 and 212 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872.
10.2 The Attorney shall keep proper records of every act done and every rupee received or paid, keep my money separate from the Attorney's own, render true accounts to me on demand under section 213, and pay over to me all sums received on my account under section 218.
10.3 The Attorney shall not deal on the Attorney's own account in the business of the agency without my consent and shall make no secret profit; if the Attorney does, I may repudiate the transaction and claim any benefit arising from it — sections 215 and 216.
10.4 The Attorney shall send me a copy of every application, objection, tenancy agreement, reply and receipt signed under this deed within thirty days of signing it, and shall produce the original of this deed and of anything signed under it to me or to my legal representatives whenever asked.
11. Delegation
11.1 Under section 190 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 an agent cannot lawfully employ another to perform acts the agent has undertaken to perform personally, unless by the ordinary custom of trade a sub-agent may be employed or the nature of the agency so requires.
11.2 The Attorney may not appoint a substitute attorney and may not delegate any power given by this deed to any other person.
12. Expenses and remuneration
12.1 The Attorney acts gratuitously and is entitled only to reimbursement of expenses actually and properly incurred on my behalf, on production of vouchers.
12.2 The Attorney may not meet those expenses out of money belonging to me except out of funds I make available for that purpose, and must account for every rupee of them.
13. Ratification and indemnity
13.1 I ratify and confirm all lawful acts done by the Attorney in my name strictly within the powers given by this deed, as if done by me, and such acts bind me and my legal representatives.
13.2 I shall indemnify the Attorney against the lawful consequences of acts done in exercise of the authority given by this deed, as provided by section 222 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872.
13.3 The Attorney shall indemnify me against every loss caused by an act outside the powers given by this deed, or by the Attorney's fraud, wilful default or negligence, and no ratification by me is to be presumed from silence or from delay.
14. Banks, registries and other offices
14.1 A bank may insist on its own power of attorney or mandate form, its own verification of the Attorney and periodic confirmation from me. A Sub-Registrar will apply sections 32, 32A and 33 of the Registration Act, 1908 and may decline a power of attorney that has not been authenticated as section 33(1)(c) requires where the principal does not reside in India. A Tehsildar, an Estate Officer, a company, a depository participant, a registrar and transfer agent, an insurer or a tax portal may each require its own authorisation. This deed exists to support those processes and overrides none of them.
14.2 Where the original of this deed is required at a counter, the Attorney may produce it for inspection and leave an attested copy, and shall return the original to my custody as soon as the purpose is served. At the Sub-Registrar, UT Chandigarh the Attorney will also be asked for a copy of this deed together with an affidavit that I am still alive and that this deed is still valid and has not been cancelled or revoked by me; the Attorney is authorised to swear that affidavit, and must not swear it if either statement has ceased to be true.
15. Notices
Notices to me: at __________. Notices to the Attorney: at __________. A change of address must be notified in writing to the other; until it is, a notice sent to the address recorded in this deed is good notice.
16. Governing law, jurisdiction, and the forums that are not civil courts
16.1 This deed is governed by the laws of India. The courts at __________, in __________, shall have jurisdiction, save that in any matter concerning immovable property the courts within whose local limits the property is situated shall also have jurisdiction.
16.2 Revenue courts. Nothing in clause 16.1 affects the exclusive jurisdiction of the revenue courts. A mutation and a correction of the record of rights lie before the Assistant Collector, with appeal to the Collector, then to the Commissioner and then to the Financial Commissioner (Revenue), under the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887.
16.3 The Estate Office ladder in Chandigarh, which is not a civil suit. Where the property is an allotted or leasehold site in a Chandigarh sector, section 19 of the Capital of Punjab (Development and Regulation) Act, 1952 as applied to the Union Territory bars a civil suit in respect of the matters that Act commits to the Estate Officer. The route is the statutory one: an appeal to the Chief Administrator, U.T. Chandigarh within thirty days of communication of the order, under section 10 of that Act read with Rule 18 of the Chandigarh Estate Rules, 2007, with power to condone delay for sufficient cause; and from there a revision within thirty days, to the Adviser to the Administrator for an order passed under the 2007 Rules under Rule 18(iv), or to the Central Government for an order passed under sections 8 and 8-A of the Act under section 10(4). Which of the two revisions is competent turns on whether the order was made under the Act or under the Rules, and getting that wrong costs a cycle. On delay alone, the Right to Service ladder runs from the Assistant Estate Officer as designated officer to the Estate Officer and then to the Secretary Estate.
16.4 Rent forums. A dispute about a tenancy the Attorney has granted or is defending does not go to the civil court either, and the name of the authority that hears it is not settled in either place this deed serves. Clause 4.1 therefore authorises the Attorney to appear before the Rent Controller, the Rent Controller-cum-Civil Judge (Junior Division), and any Rent Authority, Rent Court or Rent Tribunal constituted under the rent legislation for the time being in force where the property lies, so that whichever of those labels the officer who actually sits turns out to bear, the Attorney's authority reaches it and no objection to the Attorney's standing arises out of the name.
17. Acceptance by the Attorney
I, __________, have read this deed and accept the appointment. I am a major and of sound mind, and the age written against my name in clause 1.2 is correct. I have read clause 6 in particular and I acknowledge that I have no power to sell, mortgage, gift or long-lease any immovable property of the Principal and no power to receive any sale consideration for such property. I undertake to act only within the powers given, in the name and for the benefit of the Principal, to pay every rupee I receive into the Principal's own bank account, to keep the Principal's money separate from my own, to render accounts on demand, and to stop acting the moment this deed is revoked, expires or otherwise terminates. My specimen signature appears below.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the Principal has signed this deed on the date and at the place first written above.
PRINCIPAL
_______________________________
__________
Left / right thumb impression: ______________ Passport photograph affixed and cross-signed: ______________
ATTORNEY — acceptance and specimen signature
_______________________________
__________
Specimen signature (1) ____________________ (2) ____________________ (3) ____________________
Thumb impression: ______________ Photograph affixed: ______________
WITNESSES
Two are needed. If this deed is to be registered at the Sub-Registrar, UT Chandigarh, the first of them must qualify under paragraph 127 of the Punjab Registration Manual — in practice a Lambardar, Sarpanch or Member Panchayat for a document from a rural area, or a councillor, a gazetted officer or an advocate — and must be known to the Sub-Registrar.
Witness 1 — Signature: _____________________
Name: _____________________________________
Parentage: ________________________________
Address: __________________________________
ID produced: ______________________________
Witness 2 — Signature: _____________________
Name: _____________________________________
Parentage: ________________________________
Address: __________________________________
ID produced: ______________________________
ATTESTATION / AUTHENTICATION
To be completed by the Indian Consul or Vice-Consul, or by the Notary Public, before whom this deed is executed, or by the Sub-Registrar where it is registered.
Signed and, where required, authenticated before me this ______ day of ______________, 20____, the executant being personally known to me or identified to my satisfaction by the document noted above.
Signature, seal and designation: _________________________________
Register / serial number: ________________________________________
Extra Notes for both Parties
NOTES FOR EXECUTION — not part of the operative deed
Read only the block below for the jurisdiction you picked on the form. Both are printed because one template serves Punjab and the Union Territory of Chandigarh, and the two are priced, stamped and registered differently. The other block is not your position.
If the property and affairs are in Punjab. This deed grants no power to sell immovable property, so item (f) of entry 48 of Schedule I-A inserted by the Indian Stamp (Punjab Amendment) Act, 2023 — Punjab Act No. 2 of 2024, gazetted 15 January 2024 — does not touch it and the 2% charge is not payable. What is payable is the plain general power of attorney figure in the Revenue Department's "Document wise detail of Stamp Duty, Registration Fee and Facilitation charges" at revenue.punjab.gov.in, retrieved 6 September 2026: Rs 2,000 stamp duty where the power concerns up to five persons, which is every version of this deed, since it is given by one person to one attorney or at most two. Registration, if you choose it, is Rs 400 with facilitation charges of Rs 2,000, at the Sub-Registrar or Joint Sub-Registrar of the tehsil in which the property lies, booked on Easy Registry, the Punjab instance of the National Generic Document Registration System, at easyregistry.punjab.gov.in. That departmental table carries no date and no notification number on its face, so put the figure to the counter before you buy the paper. Buy the stamp in the Principal's own name, and do not buy it months ahead: by Revenue Department circular No. 07/15/2026-ST-2(PF-1)/10837 dated 11 July 2026 an e-Stamp Certificate left unlocked for more than four months is locked, and unlocking is a case-by-case exercise.
If the property and affairs are in the Union Territory of Chandigarh. The Punjab amending Act of 2024 is an Act of the Punjab State Legislature and does not reach Schedule I-A as it applies to this Union Territory, so the 2% does not arise here. Do not read that as meaning a sale power would be cheap: the Union Territory has its own charge on a general power of attorney with power to sell and it is 3% of the value of the property or the consideration, whichever is higher. This deed avoids it, because it authorises no sale of immovable property, and what applies is the plain line: Rs 75 stamp duty, or Rs 150 where the power is given for or by more than five persons, with a registration fee of Rs 50 and a pasting fee of Rs 20. Those figures are from the Chandigarh Administration's published "Rates of Stamp Duty & Registration Fees" table at chandigarh.gov.in/files/2021updoc/dc19-stampduty.pdf, which was created as a PDF on 17 May 2020, carries no notification number and no date on its face, and was still the live link from the Administration's Land and Property page when it was read on 6 September 2026; confirm at the Sub-Registrar, UT Chandigarh, 30 Bays Building, Sector 17, before you execute. A Rs 75 stamp is one of the very few Chandigarh instruments a citizen can e-stamp online, through e-Sampark at sampark.chd.nic.in, which is open to an individual citizen up to Rs 500; otherwise buy physical non-judicial stamp paper from an authorised vendor. If you register here, the deed goes in duplicate, the photographs of the executant and the attorney are affixed on the deed itself, and two witnesses attend of whom the first must qualify under paragraph 127 of the Punjab Registration Manual.
If you are signing abroad. Execute before the Indian Consul or Vice-Consul at the Mission having jurisdiction where you live — that squarely satisfies section 33(1)(c) of the Registration Act, 1908 — or, failing that, before a Notary Public with the notarial certificate apostilled. Then courier the original to India and diarise the day it lands, because two periods run from that day: stamping within three months under section 18 of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, and, if you intend to register, presentation within four months under section 26 of the Registration Act, 1908. An unstamped instrument is inadmissible under section 35 and no public officer may act on it; a late presentation needs the Registrar's indulgence under section 25 and a fine of up to ten times the proper registration fee. If the deed is going to be used in a Chandigarh Estate Office transaction, it must also be embossed by the Office of the Finance Department, Chandigarh Administration after it arrives.
In both places. Sign in blue ink, sign every page, affix and cross-sign your photograph, and put your thumb impression alongside your signature. Get the Attorney's specimen signature on the deed before it is attested. Keep the original yourself and send the Attorney an attested copy. Diarise the expiry date. The day the Attorney no longer needs the power, revoke it in writing, take the original back, publish the revocation and tell the Sub-Registrar, the patwari or the Estate Officer, and the bank. Figures and offices in this deed were checked on 6 September 2026.