Legal Question in Civil Litigation in India

Re: Regarding propery of Best Bengal Govt which is registar at Andhra pradesh

Dear Client,

I understand from your question that your grandfather had donated the land to Culcutta Kalimaatha Temple under a deed, presumably, a deed of donation that had been registered at Bhattiprolu , Guntur District, Andra Pradesh. On the execution and registration of the deed the Kalimaatha Temple at Culcutta had become the owner of the land donated and the temple had been receiving the paddy from the land all these years. If your father now wants to sell the property and hand over the sale proceeds to the Temple, then he has to get the approval for the same from the Trustees or Administrators of the Temple and get a power of attorney deed from them to sell the land.

Re: Regarding propery of Best Bengal Govt which is registar at Andhra pradesh

Dear Amarnadh:

Did your grandfather register the donation in 1956 at AP. What deed did he register in 1956?

In any event, how can your father sell the said land without getting any authority from the temple in that regard.

Bhushan Arya

Re: Regarding propery of Best Bengal Govt which is registar at Andhra pradesh

You need to keep the following things in focus:

1. One can sell a land only if it belongs to him. You say that your Grand father donated the land to the temple by a registered deed in 1956 and then was also looking after the land and sending the income from cultivation every year to the temple.

2. What was the type of Document registered by your grandfather? A Deed of gift? Do you have a copy of that document translated in to English?

3. Was the gift notified to the temple and did they accept it before the death of your grandfather? I assume here that it is a deed of gift from your description but it could be different as well and it can be ascertained correctly only after reading the document.

4. Only if these questions are answered we can ascertain if the ownership of the land was transferred to the Temple.

5. If the ownership of the land is not vested with your father, then obviously he can not sell it. Even otherwise going from your description, this appears to be a property owned by your grandfather who had sons and after his death becomes (where 1. the ownership did not go to the temple, and 2. where there is no will about the land a property jointly owned by his Class I heirs. ie, Son; daughter; widow ; mother; son of a pre-deceased son; daughter of a pre-deceased son ; son of a pre-deceased daughter ;daughter of a pre-deceased daughter; widow of a pre-deceased son; son of a predeceased son of a pre-deceased son ; daughter of a pre-deceased son of a pre-deceased son; widow of a pre-deceased son of a pre-deceased son). You need to remember that this would be the case only if the ownership was not transferred to the temple and that your grandfather died without writing a will about the land. Is there any will of your grandfather on this?

6. Did your grandfather create a trust and make the cultivable profits to be sent to the temple going from your other description?

7. If the ownership of the land has passed on to the temple, then you need to obtain a permission from the temple( ascertain if the person or committee giving the permission is competent to do so) and only after that you can sell the land and send the money to them.

In this type of cases, it is very difficult to give a opinion without going into the documents. Here you are mentioning one document which could be a trust deed or deed of gift. There is also no mention of consent of other heirs and there is no indication of any will from your grandfather about this property. All depends on the various factors I have mentioned above.

I can help only if the documents are in English and if not, only if they are correctly translated into English.

I hope that this helps.

Best,

N. Ramaswami