Flat or plot on a power of attorney or from a nominee? What the courts say you do and don't own

Rules as of 13 October 2026.

Two shortcuts keep showing up in Indian property deals. One is the power of attorney: "the owner has given me a POA to sell, so you can pay me and take possession." The other is the nominee: "my father nominated me in the society records, so the flat is mine." Courts have dealt with both for years, and the answer is the same for each. The paper gives you a limited authority or a right to be recognised by the society. It does not, by itself, make you the owner against everyone else.

Power of attorney: a tool for acting, not a way to pass title

The leading case is Suraj Lamp & Industries v. State of Haryana, decided by a three-judge Supreme Court bench (Justices R.V. Raveendran, A.K. Patnaik and H.L. Gokhale) on 11 October 2011 and reported at (2012) 1 SCC 656. The Court held:

• Immovable property can be legally transferred "only by a registered deed of conveyance" (para 16).
• An agreement to sell "will not confer any title nor transfer any interest" in the property, apart from the limited protection of section 53A of the Transfer of Property Act (para 12).
• A power of attorney "is not an instrument of transfer" of title. An attorney can, however, execute a registered sale deed on the owner's behalf (para 13).
• A will operates only after death (para 14).
• Such "GPA/SA/Will" transactions cannot be used as the basis for mutation in municipal or revenue records (para 16).

The Court also protected some things. Existing agreements may still be relied on to seek specific performance or defend possession, and old documents may be used to seek regularisation from development authorities (para 18). Powers of attorney given to relatives to manage affairs or execute conveyances, and development agreements, were not disturbed (para 19).

The 2025 reminder: "irrevocable" is not magic, and death ends the agency

In M.S. Ananthamurthy v. J. Manjula (2025 INSC 273, 27 February 2025, Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan), a 1986 "irrevocable" power of attorney and unregistered agreement to sell were relied on by the holder, who sold the plot by registered deed in 1998. The original owner had died in 1997. The Court held that the holder had no interest in the property, so the agency was not irrevocable and ended on the principal's death under section 201 of the Contract Act. It said "a mere use of the word 'irrevocable' in a POA does not make the POA irrevocable" (para 45), and that "an agreement to sell is not a conveyance" (para 47). The later sale by the heirs to others prevailed on the facts of that case, and the appeals were dismissed.

For a buyer: if a seller signs through a power of attorney, check that the document authorises a sale, that the owner was alive on the date of the deed, and that the sale deed is a registered conveyance in your favour. A POA sale on stamp paper is not a conveyance.

Nominee versus legal heir

A nominee is a person named by the member of a society (or in a bank account, policy or share folio) to be dealt with after the member's death. The courts have repeatedly refused to read this as inheritance.

• Maharashtra societies. In Shakti Yezdani v. Jayanand Jayant Salgaonkar (Bombay High Court, Justices A.S. Oka and A.A. Sayed, 1 December 2016), the Court held that a nominee does not become the owner of the property merely because of the nomination. It said "the nominee does not get absolute title to the property" (para 34), and read section 30 of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act as involving no disposition of the member's property by the nomination (para 19). A society's transfer to the nominee is protected against demands by others (section 30(4)), but, the Court stressed, nomination does not supersede succession or inheritance (para 20). The case mainly concerned company shares, and the section 30 analysis is part of the Court's wider reasoning.
• The Supreme Court on a different statute. In Indrani Wahi v. Registrar of Co-operative Societies (10 March 2016, Justices J.S. Khehar and C. Nagappan), under the West Bengal Co-operative Societies Act the society was required to transfer the share to the nominee. But the Court said that transfer "would have no relevance to the issue of title between the inheritors or successors" (para 20). That case turned on West Bengal law, which the Bombay High Court noted differs from the Maharashtra Act.
• Insurance. Sarbati Devi v. Usha Devi (1984), discussed in both judgments above, held that a nomination under the Insurance Act "only indicates the hand which is authorised to receive the amount"; heirs can still claim it.

The practical reading: the society may record the nominee as the member and may be safe in doing so, but the legal heirs (or the will, if there is one) can still have a claim to the flat itself. I have not read a Maharashtra GR or a Supreme Court judgment that squarely decides a flat-sale dispute between a nominee and heirs under the Maharashtra Act, so the position should be confirmed with an advocate for your facts.

A worked example (illustrative)

Suppose you are offered a flat at ₹1.2 crore by a seller who says he is the nominee of the late member. For arithmetic only, suppose there are three legal heirs with equal claims (the real shares depend on the will or on the succession law that applies). Each heir's claim is ₹1.2 crore divided by 3, which is ₹40 lakh. If two heirs did not sign, ₹80 lakh of your ₹1.2 crore sits in a dispute. Getting each of them to sign a registered release or consent costs paperwork. With an assumed stamp duty and registration of 6% of ₹1.2 crore, the cost of your own registered deed is ₹7.2 lakh. That is the price of a proper conveyance, against the price of losing a share of the flat.

What you hold	What it gives (per the cases above)	What it does not give
Registered sale deed from the owner	Legal transfer of title (subject to the seller's title)	Proof the seller had title
General power of attorney	Authority to act as agent, even to sign a registered deed	Title; survives the owner's death
Agreement to sell	Section 53A protection, right to sue	Ownership or a basis for mutation
Society nomination	Recognition by the society; protection for the society	Absolute ownership against the legal heirs

Checklist before you pay

1. Is the deed in your favour a registered conveyance, signed by the owner or by an attorney with a power that covers sale?
2. If a POA is used, was the owner alive on the date of the deed? Ask for a death-status declaration if the seller is old or the POA is old.
3. If the seller is a nominee, ask for the death certificate, will or succession documents, and a list of legal heirs.
4. Get written, registered consent or release from the other heirs where the nominee is not the only heir.
5. Ask the society for its NOC and transfer records.
6. Have an advocate search for suits and notices.

Mistakes to avoid

• Paying in full against a POA and an agreement on stamp paper.
• Relying on a POA described as "irrevocable" without reading what it actually says.
• Assuming the society's records settle ownership between family members.

This is a general explanation of reported judgments, not legal advice. A local advocate should review the documents in your specific case.