Partition deed - signature issue
Laxmi
(Querist) 10 April 2013
This query is : Resolved
I Have 2 bro 1 sis
Father had self acquired property
Brothers are having a partition deed
Basically they made this papers up. when asked in court if it was my sign i agreed, but there was no importance given to date and my sign not being maiden name.
Lower court said these deeds are no admissable and girls get equal share.
R.Ranganathan
(Expert) 10 April 2013
You can fight the case. You are entitled to equal share in the property. Contact for further details.
R Trivedi
(Expert) 10 April 2013
A. It is a more than 30 year old document, goes in favor of your brothers.
B. you have also agreed to sign it, fully goes in favor of your brothers.
C. you married in 1969 and these papers are of 1977 so in all likely-hood you would be having your married name, so this also does not help you.
It is not clear if you took the defense (with evidence) in the trial court that although you signed a blank paper but it was misused by your brothers. It is also not clear on what grounds lower court came to the conclusion that these deeds are not admissible.
Raj Kumar Makkad
(Expert) 10 April 2013
Your father died in 1980 so your signature relinquishing your share even if done during the year 1969 have no value in the eyes of law as you were not having any share out of the property hold by your father. You got share only after demise of your father and there are no sign of you relinquishing your share thereafter.
Laxmi
(Querist) 11 April 2013
30yrs old document but i filed suit about 25 years ago itself and won in lower court in my favor that those unregistered deed were not admissible.
prabhakar singh
(Expert) 11 April 2013
Things are crystal clear leaving no room of doubt or confusion.
Property is father's self acquired who died intestate leaving two sons and two daughters
behind, in year 1980.
The devolution of interest of this property
upon these 04 can not take place before 1980
Hence there is no occasion to enter into any partition agreement/deed about father's this property in year Feb 1969 or 1977 as both dates falling prior to year 1980.
How can you partition something you do not have or do not own on the very fateful date
is the question????????????
The author is right that she signed certain blank stamp papers in year 1977 which her brothers doing antedating fabricated it as a deed of partition for
a date to read in Feb 1969,where it is not only under valued but also unregistered.
i see the impugned partition deed falling on it's very face on the basis of facts and circumstances of this case as parties hereto have no occasion to
enter into any deed of partition before year 1980.
The presumption of 30 years spoken about deeds in evidence Act is discretionary to be raised in genuine cases and not for apparently false, fabricated and antedated documents.
R Trivedi
(Expert) 11 April 2013
So this is the additional information you have given that it was dtd. just six months before the marriage and having your married name.
This clearly suggests that these papers are prima facie fabricated. Hope all these evidence were given by you at the time of trial, you can certainly raise these issues with appellate court and if proved that documents are fudged, then you are safe.
Why do you think you may loose in higher court ? Is there any other information for this feeling of yours ? Any grounds for worry ?
Laxmi
(Querist) 11 April 2013
Notary has been done later and signed by Son1 and Father and Son 2 and father in their own documents. Same day both notary done.
Signed by Father, Son1, Son2, Daughter 1, Daughter 2
AND PANCHAYath people
------------------
Both the agreements of son1 and son2 are similar.
The only thing that the opposition says and also our lawyer says is - I agreed it was my sign.
Next when one of the brothers sold a part of the property b4 i filed suit i didnt say any objection which means i knew that there was parition done is what the opposition claims.
These reason being we are asked to go for compromise and get just a little extra share in the just 1 left site.
Laxmi
(Querist) 11 April 2013
Now that its come to the stage where judge says we have to compromise else this would not end. Can I Mention about my marriage date and my after marriage surname in the ante dated Deed. Judge may have overlooked it earlier. Will something said orally still have value before the judge at this final stage.
Is ante dated deeds or documents illegal ? (that is made today but dated some months / yrs ago)
V R SHROFF
(Expert) 11 April 2013
Anything in court must be in writing: People & Judge forget oral submission. Judges go on changing, So Apply in writing,about ur marriage date and your after marriage surname in the ante dated Deed.
R Trivedi
(Expert) 11 April 2013
Now things are very clear, a will-less parental property apart from amicable transfer can have following type paper work;
1. Some agreement among siblings when father was alive but not signed by father.
2. Some agreement among all sibling also signed by father.
3. Some agreement among all siblings after the death of father, compromising one or few siblings.
Your case falls in Sr#2, other two options above can be disputed by agrieved sibling, because Sr#1 is void and Sr#3 is depriving a sibling of his lawful right.
Your defense can only be possible if you could prove the fraud by your brothers, then the question will come how your father signature appeared on that paper ?
You still have not told the grounds taken by trial court in not admitting these papers ? Even otherwise you can pray to the appellate court that a very crucial evidence with respect to fraud (that is use of your married name prior to your marriage ), has come to your attention, and the honorable court must consider the same for the sake of justice.
Laxmi
(Querist) 11 April 2013
@Prabhakar Singh - Sir thank you for highlighting important points.
Raj Kumar Makkad
(Expert) 11 April 2013
Your right in the property cannot be taken over by anyone merely on the basis of alleged partition deed executed prior to the death of your father. You have a very good case in hand.
Laxmi
(Querist) 11 April 2013
@ Raj Kumar Makkad Sir - I believe and all know people of our case say that things are in my favor but what is happening in front of the trail court is different.
I need some pointers, while you read my all the above replies, can you please highlight some strong pointers and how to get it to the trial court. I mean the court terminologies / sections if possible.
I shall be grateful.
prabhakar singh
(Expert) 11 April 2013
While you have admitted your signature,have you explained that you made it on a blank sheet in connection of so and so and signed post your marriage and have also adduced oral evidence to prove your explanation.
Laxmi
(Querist) 11 April 2013
@ Prabhakar singh - Sir No, never had i mentioned about the blank paper signs my brothers had taken from me in court. Just the opposition advocate in lower court asked "is this yours ?". i said it looks like mine. He again asked is it yours - i said "yes" ( they showed only Son2's document)
Now Son 1's document is what is dated b4 my marriage. son 2's document has a reference of son1's document - saying "just like elder son was given site1 dated (date), son2 will also be given site2.
Next its noticed that the Stamp paper seal which has year in it has been changed or corrected (by hand) changed from some year to the year before agreement. Example: IF it was 1969 i think has been written and made 1968 (9 changed to 8). i could see this in the copy that was given to us- original is in court files.
Raj Kumar Makkad
(Expert) 11 April 2013
I think you matter has been discussed in details and many points already been provided to you and now it is your turn to recollect those at one place and move ahead. Rest labour should be made by your lawyer.
Laxmi
(Querist) 12 April 2013
Sir i have noted all the point. need expert opinion in atleast one last thing.
Stamp paper seal which has year in it has been changed or corrected (by hand) changed from some year to the year before agreement. Example: IF it was 1969 i think has been written and made 1968 (9 changed to 8). i could see this in the copy that was given to us- original is in court files.
Will such stamp paper manipulated by human correction of date become invalid ?
R Trivedi
(Expert) 12 April 2013
It appears your lawyer is doing nothing, 25 years ago when you had these papers from opposing party, you should have taken steps to prod further on these points.
You are 60+, case is also badly handled by you, you have admitted many things in the case, matter is going on for last 25 years, court has also stated that compromise or suffer for few more years.
If we see the totality of situation, then I feel you should give serious thoughts to the court's suggestion of compromise.
Laxmi
(Querist) 12 April 2013
This is being translated to english and typed by my daughter as I speak local language only and not english and my education is just schooling. This case made me to come out of the shell and fight. Struggle to meet the day to day needs is difficult amidst this we are spending on this case.
My brothers say they would compromise only when i and my sis too agree to sell together. I do not want to leave this place as i fought for it (i am currently in one of the portion of this suit property). more over they are unimaginable people who would create more issues before the property is sold and we get money in hand.
Sir, i just jotted down the pointers and would ask my lawyer to sum them up and present it in the court.
Can you please let me know if - "such stamp paper tampered with stamp date become invalid or void? " Is there any rule as such?
R Trivedi
(Expert) 12 April 2013
The rule is any document if tampered with is a problem.
The question here is how does the changing date on this paper help your brothers and how does it put you into loss, keeping in view the fact that you admitted the signature and it was signed by your father.
prabhakar singh
(Expert) 12 April 2013
The factual aspects have already been discussed by me in my earlier post.
The legal aspects about the document in question are being discussed here;
The document is under stamped and needs impounding under section 33 of THE INDIAN STAMP ACT, 1899 (AS AMENDED AND APPLICABLE IN YOUR STATE);
The document is unregistered while all non testamentary documents which purport or operate to create, declare, assign, limit or extinguish, whether in present or in future, any right, title or interest, whether vested or contingent, of the value of one hundred rupees and upwards, to or in immovable property are compulsorily registrable under section 17 of The Registration Act, 1908.
The effect of a document compulsorily registrable under section 17 of the The Registration Act, 1908 BUT NOT REGISTERED IS LAID IN section 49 of The Registration Act, 1908 as follows:(out of all you need to read simply"No document required by Section 17 or by any provision of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 to be registered shall-(a)Affect any immovable property comprised therein, or")
Section 49. Effect of non-registration of documents required to be registered
No document required by Section 17 or by any provision of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 to be registered shall-
(a)Affect any immovable property comprised therein, or
(b) Confer any power to adopt, or
(c) Be received as evidence of any transaction affecting such property or conferring such power; unless it has been registered:
Provided that an unregistered document affecting immovable property and required by this Act or the Transfer of Property Act, 1882, to be registered may be received as evidence of a contract in a suit for specific performance under Chapter 11 of the Specific Relief Act, 1877, or as evidence of part performance of a contract for the purposes of Section 53A of the Transfer of Property Act, 1892, or as evidence of any collateral transaction not required to be effected by registered instrument.
If the mind is applied judicially these points are sufficient to demolish the case based on so called panchayat(partition) deed.
A judge must not take notice of practice of a convention of panchayat which proceeds to record something that is not in accordance with law and is rather expressly barred by law.
Laxmi
(Querist) 12 April 2013
@ Prabhakar Singh - Sir thank you so much for giving all the legal aspects. I shall take it forward thru my adv and present it to the court. Will keep you all posted on the proceedings.
Thank each of you for your time.
Laxmi
(Querist) 12 April 2013
At this point where the court is in the stage of providing its judgement of compromise. When i put forward these strong point of fraud / fabricated Agreement and the judgement is in my favour, Are my brothers still eligible to contest this case in Supreme Court.
Because the papers were fraud and i win - then will their (brothers)offense be treated as criminal and will that forfit their capability to appeal in the supreme court ?
Is it usual for civil cases to go till supreme court - is it a big number ?
Laxmi
(Querist) 12 April 2013
@ Prabhakar singh - Sir based on the pointers you have given (unregisterd not admissable)and also on basis of my sign in Son1's document not being maiden surname
- IF i take this forward THEN there would'nt any question arise on why I said the Son2's agreement sign was mine when examined in lower court?
Note ; opposition lawyer never showed and asked about son1's sign being mine.
Also i read thru previous papers and found that Son1(deceased now) had told in the lower court that both Son1 and Son2's documents were made with the same typist in the same time. (dates 1.5 yrs apart though)
prabhakar singh
(Expert) 12 April 2013
What i have stated as points to object over those documents is that:
1.That factually they were not executed on the date they purports to be as they show dates before your marriage but your sign upon them is with your post marriage sir name and that goes to prove that they were prepared maliciously by fabrication technique for the purposes of this dispute because it could not be expected from you to know months or years before where would you be married and what would be your sir name post your marriage.And there was no occasion or reason to adopt sir name of husband family before marriage even if some negotiations were in progress.
2.Upon legal aspect i have informed you highlighting two legal points:
a)The documents are stamped with rs.2/=00 as you stated.
Therefore they are undervalued having regard to the value of property they have been made and Rs.2/=00 stamp duty is insufficient therefore you should move an application under section 33 of the Indian stamp Act as amended in your state to ask court to IMPOUND them and to send to the collector for adjudication of proper duty payable on them.However court itself can also adjudicate proper duty and penalty payable in it's discretion.
b)The next legal point i asked you to raise
that since by disputed documents rights ,title and interest in immovable property has been dealt with therefore as per section 17 of the Registration Act,they are compulsorily registrable,while they are
not.
c)As the documents have been prepared violating mandatory provisions of section 17 of the Registration Act.,no effect to them can be given by the court as is laid down in section 49 of the Registration Act.
If you successfully do this exercise,then you can sail through obstacles you are facing due to existence of those documents.
I am telling on your feeds of facts ,how the brief(file of case) has progressed is not known to me nor is that possible for you to convey me all on this portal,they require face to face discussions on table with case file.
Hence just grasp what have factually and legally suggested,discuss with your lawyer,and instruct him to proceed accordingly.
Laxmi
(Querist) 13 April 2013
@ Prabhakar singh Sir - Thank you.
Sir, is there a way we can consult you over phone / email and get some additional details and pay your consultation fee too.
We would take the pointers you have given thru our Adv before which would like to speak to you.
R Trivedi
(Expert) 13 April 2013
1. Lesser stamp value may not be fatal, as it can be forced by court.
2. The mute point is she has admitted the signature.
3. Another aspect is before marriage, how could she sign with her married name ? She admitted that it was her signature, she also says that they took signature on the blank paper.
So what possibly would have happened is, that they took her signature after marriage, and put pre-marriage date, this aspect goes in favor of her. This sole point proves fabrication on the part of beneficiary party. This point should not have been skipped at trial court level. She still has not mentioned on what grounds trial court rejected these documents.
4. Once the document is signed by father and all the siblings, it has substantial probative value.
Laxmi
(Querist) 13 April 2013
@Trivedi Sir -
3. Answer - I was shown just one document thats made after my marriage and was asked if it was mine - I said looks like mine. The opposition advocate in a stern voice asked if its mine _ I said yes.
(copy of this document was not submitted to the court before examining me. They examined me and then later submitted. jst FYI)
Signatures taken in blank papers was never mentioned by me in the court. (this is what actually happened that i am letting know here)
Q. This point should not have been skipped at trial court level. She still has not mentioned on what grounds trial court rejected these documents.
Answer. @ Trivedi Sir, my advocate didnt mention this explicitly at all. when i told adv about this, he said - bcas i agreed one sign as mine in Document2 then automatically Document1 is also presumed to be your sign and difference in surname is no big deal. so did not get to the notice of the H.court.
prabhakar singh
(Expert) 13 April 2013
Once Trivedi ji also comes to one conclusion
over want of registration of document insufficiently stamped,this lengthy discussion may come to an end as i have already stated court itself can also adjudicate duty and ask to pay.
If a document were to pass title or interest in immovable property,can it be done so simply by signing a Rs.2/=00 stamp paper,if so why are there necessity of registered gifts or registered relinquishment deeds or registration of partition deeds??
Throughout it's course the crux seen by me lies in this information of the query and ONLY that has been explored by me"Brothers are having a partition deed dated Feb 1969 which they have written with some blank stamp papers that i had signed in 1977 on some other pretext. NOT registered, under stamped. "
Laxmi
(Querist) 13 April 2013
I dont know if this would matter any way but still.
During document1 - Brothr2 age was 18 yrs 10 days
During document2 - Brother2 age was 19.4 yrs
Laxmi
(Querist) 13 April 2013
@prabhakar singh sir-yes brother1 was definetly major as he was long married before that date in agreement and about 10+ years older than brother2.
They have chosen to mention that date for both agreements keeping in mind Brother2 would turn major around 10 days before Brother1's agreement.
*Brother 1 (deceased 3 yrs ago) had stated in lower court at one instance that BOTH the agreements (which are 1.4 yrs apart) were made at a time, typed by same person.
R Trivedi
(Expert) 13 April 2013
I am not in disagreement with Shri Prabhakar Singh, but the act states that the court has the right to enforce proper stamp at prevailing time. Mr Singh also agrees that court has more than simple discretion to adjudicate. Legality of such document with lesser stamp value, was not at all the question raised at trial.
In one of the cases (not able to recall immediately) while answering the mode of proof, the honorable Apex Court ruled that a paper admitted as evidence even without stamp, cannot be rejected once the same has been admitted by the party and no objection was taken in the beginning, because if the objection was taken in the beginning the opposing party would have opportunity to correct the same or the court could have enforced the proper value.
Mrs. Laxmi, As Mr Makkad has already stated that substantial light has been thrown on the issue, ask your counsel to prepare properly in front of higher court. On the face of it the out of the way proposal of the court for compromise is not bad, mediation is the need of hour. And as far as your another question of going to supreme court by any party is concerned, the parties have every right to approach the legal remedy available under law. This cannot be blocked.
prabhakar singh
(Expert) 13 April 2013
I agree with Mr.Trivedi even without any judgement that when it comes to any curable objection before the trial the same can not be raised in appeal.
But simultaneously if the objection is such
that it was impossible for party to cure the same had it been taken even before trial and the objection is purely legal then it can be raised even in appeal much less in first appeal,at least,where oral evidence is also re appreciated.
The objection as to bar of s.49 registration act is a pure question of
law and should be allowed to be raised as a party at it's sufferance can not cure it at any stage of the suit ,pre or post the trail.If pleas are not there in W.S.amendment can be sought even at first appellate stage as we all know an appeal is called as continuation of the suit.
Laxmi
(Querist) 14 April 2013
@ Prabhakar Singh Sir, i have provided the document copy by mail and request your inputs on it.
