Start from the proposition that decides most of these cases. Nobody can transfer a better title than he has. A co-owner may sell his own undivided share, and that sale is good to the extent of that share. He cannot convey the shares of the other co-owners, and no amount of recital in the deed makes him able to. Our guide on whether one legal heir can sell jointly inherited property sets out how that plays out in practice and what the buyer is actually left holding.
First, find out what was actually registered
Almost everything depends on the document, and you can obtain it without anyone's cooperation. A sale of immovable property is compulsorily registrable, and the registers and indexes kept under the Registration Act, 1908 are open to inspection.
- Get an encumbrance certificate for the property covering a period that safely spans the transaction, so you can see every registered dealing and not only the one you have heard about. Our guide on viewing an encumbrance certificate online in Karnataka shows how to pull it.
- Get a certified copy of the sale deed itself. Read who signed, in what capacity, what was recited about your share, and what consideration was stated.
- If it was signed by an attorney, get the power of attorney. Check the date, whether it was authenticated, whether it authorised a sale at all, and whether the principal was alive when it was used.
- Get the current khata and mutation entries, and check the register of mutations, because the revenue record will show what was reported and when.
- Fix the date you first knew. Emails, messages, a call log, the family group chat. This will matter more than anything else you gather.
Why the date of knowledge is the pivot
The Limitation Act, 1963 gives three years for a suit to cancel or set aside an instrument, and time runs from when the facts entitling the plaintiff to have it cancelled or set aside first become known to him, not from the date of the deed. The Act also provides separately that where a suit is based on the defendant's fraud, or where knowledge of the right sued on was concealed by fraud, or where a document necessary to establish the plaintiff's right was fraudulently concealed, limitation does not begin to run until the plaintiff has discovered the fraud or could with reasonable diligence have discovered it. Those protections are real, and they are also subject to provisos protecting a purchaser for value who was not party to the fraud and did not know of it.
So the honest position is that being abroad does not by itself extend your time, but not knowing may. Record now, in a form that can be proved later, when and how you found out.
The quickest way to lose a strong case is to accept a share of the sale proceeds, or to sign a confirmation, consent or ratification deed to keep the peace. Both can be read as adopting the transaction. If money has already been transferred to you, do not spend it, take advice on whether and how to return it, and say in writing that it is received without prejudice and without accepting the sale.
What relief to ask for
There is a real choice here and it should be made deliberately rather than by copying a precedent. The Specific Relief Act, 1963 lets a person against whom a written instrument is void or voidable, and who reasonably apprehends serious injury if it is left outstanding, sue to have it adjudged void or voidable, and the court may order it delivered up and cancelled, sending a copy of its decree to the registering officer to note the cancellation. That is one route.
The other is to say that the deed simply does not bind your share at all, and to sue for a declaration to that effect together with partition and possession of your share. Which framing is right depends on whether the deed purports to convey your interest and on how it was executed, and the choice affects both the relief and the limitation analysis. This is genuinely a question to settle with an advocate on the documents, not one to guess at.
Where the suit goes and what it looks like
A suit relating to immovable property is instituted where the property is situated, so a Bengaluru property means a Bengaluru court whatever your address is. In most family cases the practical vehicle is a partition suit in which the impugned sale is challenged and your share is worked out, and our guide on how a property partition suit is run sets out the structure, the parties and the stages. Ask for an interim injunction restraining further alienation and, where a third party is in possession, join him, because a decree that does not bind the person holding the land is of limited use.
If a forged signature or a forged power of attorney was used
Then there is a criminal dimension as well, and a complaint has its place. Two cautions. A criminal complaint does not decide title, so it never substitutes for the civil suit. And it changes the temperature of the family dispute permanently, so it is a decision to take with your eyes open. Preserve the original documents, obtain your specimen signatures from an independent source such as your bank, and take advice before making an allegation of forgery in writing.