G. Kalawathi Bai (D) vs G. Shashikala (D) 2025 INSC 851 - S. 32 Registration Act - Power Of Attorney - Referred To Larger Bench
Registration Act 1908 - Section 32 - Supreme Court Doubts correctness of the view taken in Rajni Tandon vs. Dulal Ranjan Ghosh Dastidar (2009) 14 SCC 782 that power-of-attorney holder who signs a sale deed on behalf of the principal would become the ‘executant’ thereof and would be covered by Section 32(a) of the Act and observed: A power-of-attorney holder executes a document, say, a sale deed, not in his own name but in the name of his principal, and signs it on behalf of 9 the principal by virtue of the authority conferred upon him by the power of attorney. He does not, thereby, become the ‘executant’ of the sale deed as the said sale deed would invariably be executed in the name of the principal, who would be shown therein as represented by the power-of-attorney holder. The power-of-attorney holder, therefore, does not become the ‘executant’ referred to in Section 32(a) of the Act but would still remain the agent and, by virtue of being authorized by the power of attorney, he merely executes and signs it on that principal’s behalf- Issue referred to larger bench. (Para 11-19)
