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Property planning during COVID-19 crisis

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Representational image

Mumbai-based Shailendra Dubey, who works as partner at Plan My Estate Advisors LLP, speaks about the right time to write a Will and much more. 

Organising your wealth

While the world is still figuring out how will life be after lockdown and what will be the economic impact, there is no debate that the best use of the extra time in this lockdown period is to spend with our family and for our family. This may be the best time to take that important step for our loved ones and work on organizing and streamlining our documents to ensure smooth and dispute-free inheritance to our loved ones. Here are few basic but important activities towards the same.
Organizing investment and property papers

One of the most challenging exercise for the executor i.e. person who is handling the deceaseds estate is to organize the list of all the assets and liabilities. Any mistake here may have serious impact and delay the process of claiming inheritance. 

Hence, it is very important to maintain a consolidated list of all the accounts, investments and liabilities. Keep all the originals and other important papers in locker or some safe place at home, maintain and regularly update the asset register and communicate the same to immediate legatee. Additionally, it is also advisable to digitalize and convert all the important documents to electronic form as this will not only protect them from being mutilated or lost but will also make the executors job lot easier. 

Joint accounts and nominations 

It is highly advisable to have various accounts and investments to be held jointly. This will provide the much-required liquidity should anything happen to the main account holder and simplify the transmission process on demise of the account holder. 

While it is must for singly held account, it is advisable that even the jointly held accounts, investments, property, insurance etc., should have a valid nomination. This will provide the immediate liquidity to family thus avoiding the lengthy legal process of transmission.

Going online 

This lockdown has taught us how important it is to move our transactions and businesses online. Clearly businesses, which can migrate online, will be able to survive and flourish. Today, almost all the banks, mutual funds, insurance companies, wealth management companies etc., are offering their products and services online. So, consolidate your accounts and start accessing and transacting online. Apart from transaction efficiency, this will also make inheritance faster and smoother post demise. 

Putting in place legal agreements and documents 

It is very common to give loans to someone in our family or a close friend or an investor in a project or a friends start up without proper paper work. There may be certain transactions, which might have happened purely based on mutual understanding and trust. 

It may be good idea in this lockdown time to work on those documents and stitch those offline transactions into a legal agreement. Needless to say, this will be very helpful for your loved ones in claiming these hard-earned monies in case you are not around.

Start working on will and other succession documents

This is probably the best time to let go that procrastination and start working on your will. Talk to your estate planner or legal advisor and figure out if a will is good enough or a trust will work for you. 

Start with baby steps by listing down beneficiaries, distribution strategy, asset details etc. Remember you have worked so hard, spent your whole life in creating that wealth for your loved ones ? would you want to expose your family to legal delays and disputes for inheriting your wealth?

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Legal

Karnataka High Court says wearing hijab non-essential practice in Islam; upholds ban

Published

3 years ago

on

March 15, 2022

By

Radhika Dhawad | Bengaluru

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Representational image

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday upheld hijab ban by dismissing petitions filed by a section of Muslim students from the Government Pre-University Girls College in Udupi seeking permission to wear hijab inside classrooms.


The court upheld the state government ban by saying, The prescription of school uniforms is a reasonable restriction.


The court further said hijab was not an essential religious practice in Islam. However, the petitioners are likely to challenge the ban in the Supreme Court.


“Met my clients in Hijab matter in Udupi. Moving to SC soon In sha Allah. These girls will In sha Allah continue their education while exercising their rights to wear Hijab. These girls have not lost hope in Courts and Constitution,” lawyer Anas Tanwir wrote in a tweet.

The court was answering three key questions on the controversy namely:
1. Whether wearing hijab is an essential religious practice in Islamic faith protected under Article 25?
2. Whether prescription of school uniform is violative of rights
3. Whether government order on February 5 was issued without application of mind and manifestly arbitrary?


A three judge bench comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna S Dixit and Justice JM Khazi delivered their verdict on the ongoing hijab controversy at 10.30 am today.


Ahead of the hijab row verdict, Section 144 was imposed in Bangalore and educational institutions remained closed.

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Legal

SC grants bail to Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination convict AG Perarivalan jailed for 32 years

Published

3 years ago

on

March 9, 2022

By

Radhika Dhawad | New Delhi

Rajiv Gandhi

Rajiv Gandhi

The Supreme Court, on Wednesday afternoon, granted bail to AG Perarivala, one of the seven convicts in former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.


However, the remission of his life imprisonment is pending before the President of India. AG Perarivala was serving life sentence and was jailed for almost 32 years.


As per the SC order, Perarivalan would have to follow the conditions of release and would have to report before the local police officer every month. 

Granting him bail, the court, in its order, said: Since Perarivalan has already undergone sentence for more than 30 years, we are of the considered view that he is entitled to bail in spite of the vehement opposition by the Additional Solicitor General Additional KM Nataraj.
On May 21, 1991, he was accused of purchasing an eight-volt battery used to trigger the belt bomb that killed Gandhi. Perarivalan was arrested when he was 19 and was sentenced to death in May 1999.

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Legal

Supreme Court to allow journalists inside courtrooms for physical hearing of cases

Published

4 years ago

on

October 21, 2021

By

Karan Pareek | New Delhi


The Supreme Court of India, on Thursday, October 21, resumed hearing of cases and pleas in the physical mode for the first time since March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in India.
The Supreme Court has recently issued new SoPs for hybrid hearings as per which all cases on Wednesdays and Thursdays to be heard only in the physical presence of the counsels/parties in courtrooms.
Along with this, SC also decided to allow media persons inside the courtroom during the physical hearings. However, journalists would have to strictly adhere to COVID-19 related norms and protocols.
?With the physical hearing in the Supreme Court of India commencing tomorrow (Thursday, 21 October 2021), it has been decided to allow the media persons, subject to usual COVID restrictions, into the courtrooms for covering the proceedings,” said the top court in a press note.
Supreme Court heard cases through video conference since March last year due to the pandemic and several bar bodies and lawyers demanded that the physical hearings should be resumed immediately.

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