CHENNAI: I would like your advice on whether to accept a sale deed (parent document) of a property which doesn’t have signature of purchases anywhere. Is it valid legally? Will it not have any problem in case of disposing it of in future to another party?
— Lalith Kumar
It has now been made mandatory for the signature of both parties to be in the sale deed registered. In earlier days the vendor’s signature and the acknowledgement of the sale consideration found in the document was enough along with the witnesses.
I had asked you about fraudulent land allotment by my mother’s office housing society directors and asked you if we can file a writ as per the advice of our lawyer. You had pointed out that this complaint should be raised with Registrar under Sec.90 and court will not interfere in this. But, my lawyer convinced us that filing writ is the only way to get justice and took `50,000 from us. But, the court has now directed us to approach Deputy Registrar and file a complaint under Sec.90. When I informed this to my lawyer, he again wants to exhibit this as ‘victory’ for us and is now directing us to approach Deputy Registrar. We have wasted more than 1 year and feel cheated by our lawyer. We have now approached the Deputy Registrar, filed a complaint and summons have been issued now after a lot of follow-ups. Now, can my mother file a complaint against our lawyer? If yes, what do we need to do and on what grounds we can raise a complaint against him? What if the Deputy Registrar doesn’t do anything and all this turns out to be an eyewash and no justice comes up finally? What do we do next?
— Karunakaran P
Your problem is that after getting advice from a retired judge, you go and follow the advice given by another lawyer. Now having lost some money, you want to take action against the lawyer for which also you need another lawyer. This is an endless game. Some people learn lessons only in a hard way. Your complaint, if any, given against the lawyer in Bar Council will be heard by another three lawyers and it will go endlessly. Forget such tiring exercise. The Deputy Registrar (Housing) normally decides matters quickly. As against his order, an appeal will lie to the Small Causes Court under Section 152 of the TN Co-operative Societies Act.
Thanks for the various GOs cited in the clarification published on 19.02.2019 in The New Indian Express. All the GOs cover buildings completed on or before 01.07.2007 whereas the house in question was completed in 2013 as indicated in my earlier emails dated 20.11.2018, 18.12.2018 and 08.02.2019. The house has been built without any violation except that the sanctioned plan hasn’t been obtained, since the plot was unapproved, but now it is regularised under the regularisation of unapproved plot scheme.
— Anonymous
As per Section 113 of the Town & Country Planning Act, the Government can exempt any provision under the Act. You can file an appeal if you are so inclined.
I am an 81-year-old railways pensioner fighting for restitution of full pension after I paid back the commutation money received with interest (5.5%). I had written to Justice Madan B Lokur. Previously, I was financially pressed to meet our expenses within the 1/3 pension, but with the 7th PC and an extra 20 per cent for crossing 80 years of age and the income from the flat I have disposed of, I can manage. But, I feel that my legitimate dues are withheld by the government and if I receive them I can donate to worthy causes. Can this case be filed now on the basis of the SC’s judgement on civil appeal 6048 /2010? I am told that the case is of an employee of TCIL and not railways, but I say both are PSU employees. Where should I file?
— V Narayanan, Coimbatore
Writing letters to Supreme Court Judges will not help and by the way, Justice Lokur is already retired and gone. You have no case for returning the commutation amount with interest and then seek for full pension. Courts never encourage such type of speculative gamble in matters of pension. There are a number of judgments against you in this regard.
Mail your legal queries to expertexplains@gmail.com
Justice K Chandru expertexplains@gmail.com is a former judge of the Madras High Court