Notary Public for General Power of Attorney for India

One of our most common requests for notary public services is to notarise the General Power of Attorney used in India. In most cases, clients are buying or selling property in India, taking loans from Indian banks, or conducting legal proceedings in the courts in India. However, because they are not physically present in India, they need to appoint someone (an attorney) to act and do all things necessary on their behalf in India.

For anyone living in Sydney, we provide notary public services to assist them with the General Power of Attorney intended to be used in India. A General Power of Attorney prepared for use in India but signed in Australia must be notarised by a notary public before it will be legally valid and accepted in India.

If the General Power of Attorney is prepared in India, it is generally printed on ‘bonded’ or ‘stamped’ paper bearing a mark indicating that duty has been pre-paid to the government. This type of official paper is not readily available in Australia. If you have been told that your General Power of Attorney must be on this kind of paper, then you will need to arrange for a hard copy of the General Power of Attorney to be prepared in India by your lawyer in India and sent to you in a hard copy format. If your lawyer in India emails a copy of this document to you, you will not be able to print it on the official paper in Australia.

Many of our clients have the General Power of Attorney prepared for them by their lawyer in India and sent to them by email. In Australia, they then print it on normal A4 paper (which is commonly used in Australia) before bringing it to our notary public for notarisation. We understand that duty can be paid once the completed General Power of Attorney arrives in India and it will be post stamped.

Our experience with the formal requirements of the General Power of Attorney for India varies. For example:

• Some the General Power of Attorney must include a photograph of the ‘executant’ or ‘donor’, sometimes they also need to provide a photograph of their attorney.
• Sometimes the photograph of the executant or donor must be signed by them (across the photograph) and then notarised, and other times the notary public just needs to place a seal over the photograph.
• Sometimes the General Power of Attorney must be witnessed by 2 people and the notary public (and the notary public must witness your witnesses).
• Sometimes the General Power of Attorney must be witnessed by the notary public alone.
• Sometimes the General Power of Attorney must be lodged with the Indian Consulate, and sometimes it needs to be processed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade first with either authentication or apostille.
• We have had clients include their thumb print, and we have also had a client who had to place a print of ALL fingers and thumbs!

We also encourage our clients to check with their lawyer in India whether their General Power of Attorney must be authenticated and legalised with the Indian Consulate. This requirement may vary depending on what the General Power of Attorney is intended to do, and whether it is used for a personal or commercial purpose. For more information, we encourage you to contact the Indian Consulate in your state after obtaining advice from your lawyer in India.

Our notary public has extensive experience in assisting Indians, non resident Indians, person of Indian origin, or anyone with property dealings in India with the General Power of Attorney for India. See examples of the General Power of Attorney used by banks in India.

If you are looking for assistance with legal proceedings, including divorce proceedings under the Hindu Marriage Act, please see this previous post.

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