Q593. Claim Inheritance in

Punjab India | NRI Lawyers, find

the right lawyer

Question: Hello I’m a NRI based in the UK. As my late father died some 10 years ago, I would like to claim my inheritance and later sell my father’s land in the Punjab. I have acquired the land documents through a NRI solicitor. The documents apparently had my father’s name spelt incorrectly. So with the advice of the solicitor, the issue was raised with Revenue Department in the Punjab. My father’s identity documents were also sent to verify his name. But this has taken some 6 months and doesn’t seem to conclude. What should I do? Can you advise me ? Do I need to change the solicitor? Regards P Singh Answer: If you are not satisfied with the time being taken to resolve your issue and you have not received any progress reports of what your lawyer is doing for you so far, then perhaps you will have to decide whether changing your solicitor will help. You will find it quite expensive and difficult to accomplish what you are trying to do from UK. My advise would be to get some time off and go to India, then try to resolve the spelling name correction etc. directly with the concerned departments with or without a solicitor. Eventually you may need a lawyer to help you through various formalities when it comes to claiming inheritance, such as property mutation etc. but by being there, you can at least get first hand information and select a lawyer who you are comfortable with. One must be careful when it comes to selecting a lawyer in India. It is not uncommon to hear stories where lawyers will try and get as much money as possible by simply prolonging a case.

NRIs & PIO from Punjab

• Punjab government has many organizations to help NRIs resolve issues such as property matters. The Govt of Punjab, I think is the only State in India to have special NRI Police stations where NRIs can file complaints of harassment or corruption against government officials. • As there are a large number of NRIs from Punjab, there are perhaps several lawyers who advertise themselves as NRI specialist lawyers. When selecting a lawyer, don’t get influence by claims made on a lawyers website or other advertisements. Before retaining the services of a lawyer, whether in India or abroad, make sure to have a personal meeting to access the lawyer and see whether you feel comfortable to use his/her services. Generally when a person retains a lawyer, confidential information is divulged to the lawyer, while abroad there are stringent rules of confidentiality, in India even though such rules may exist, they may be hard to enforce.

Available worldwide