Seller of Mahalaxmi Trust property ‘misled’ Himachal Pradesh High Court

Palampur, March 3

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Information gathered by The Tribune regarding the illegal sale of Shri Shri Mahalaxmi Trust property valued at Rs 5 crore has revealed that the seller had misrepresented facts in an agreement entered in the sale-purchase deed and also before the Himachal Pradesh High Court.

The seller had shown himself as a member of the Trust having authority to sell the Trust property. However, the seller was neither a member of the Trust nor had any power of attorney from any trustee to sell the property. Since it was sale of trust property, the permission from the Himachal Government was mandatory under Section 118 of the HP Tenancy and Land Reforms Act. Therefore, the sub-registrar had refused to execute the sale deed earlier.

Later, the purchaser filed a civil suit (number 141 of 2022) in the HP High Court seeking directions to the seller for the execution of sale agreement dated October 13, 2021. In response to the summons, the seller appeared in the HC for himself and the trust.

In the court, he misrepresented himself as a member of the trust and stated that he was ready to sell the property. The court passed necessary orders for the execution of the agreement on May 12, 2023, with a direction to the Palampur sub-registrar to register the sale deed before May 29, 2023.

When the matter came before the sub-registrar for the registration of sale deed again after orders of the HC, he registered the sale deed without verifying if the seller had permission under Section 118 of the HP Land Revenue Act to sell the Trust property or not, which was mandatory. He did not enquire that the seller was a genuine trustee or not and even did not ask for the copies of the trust deed, registration certificate of the trust and names of the trustees.

Later, the matter came before Palampur tehsildar Sarthak Sharma for mutation of property. He refused to execute the mutation as the trust had no permission to sell the land. The seller also told the tehsildar to execute the mutation or face contempt of court.

“Then the seller applied for the correction of land records. Then the necessary order was passed and later a supplementary sale deed was registered,” Sharma said.