Two very different things travel under the same name here, and confusing them is how buyers end up owning nothing.
The legitimate use
An owner who cannot attend, often an NRI or someone unwell, executes a power of attorney authorising a named person to execute and register the sale deed on their behalf. That is entirely proper. Title passes by the registered sale deed executed by the attorney for the owner, and the owner remains the seller.
The arrangement that does not work
The so-called SA/GPA/WILL transaction: an unregistered agreement to sell, plus a general power of attorney, plus a will, used instead of a sale deed to avoid stamp duty. In Suraj Lamp & Industries v. State of Haryana (2011) the Supreme Court held that such transactions do not convey title. A power of attorney is an agency document, not a conveyance. Buyers in these arrangements cannot get a clean loan, cannot pass good title on, and are exposed if the "seller" or their heirs later dispute it.
Unless it is coupled with an interest, a power of attorney is revocable at any time and stands automatically revoked on the death or insanity of the person who gave it. A sale executed under a power of attorney after the owner has died is void. This is why the checks below are not optional.
What to verify before you accept a sale by attorney
- Is it registered? A power of attorney authorising sale of immovable property should be registered. One executed abroad must be notarised and apostilled or attested at the Indian mission, and then adjudicated and stamped in India.
- Read the powers. It must expressly authorise sale of this property, receipt of consideration, and execution and registration of the deed. A general management or maintenance power is not enough.
- Confirm the principal is alive and competent, ideally on video call on the day, and obtain a fresh written confirmation that the power stands unrevoked.
- Check for revocation in the sub-registrar's records and the encumbrance certificate.
- Pay the principal directly, into the owner's own bank account, not the attorney's, unless the document expressly authorises otherwise.
The safer alternative
Where the price is significant, ask the owner to execute the sale deed personally, in person or by video-assisted arrangements the sub-registrar permits. Where that is impossible, insist on a fresh, specific, registered power of attorney executed close to the transaction date rather than an old general one.