Why the document is still dangerous after you decide
Section 208 of the Indian Contract Act is the provision that matters, and it cuts against you.
It says the termination of an agent's authority does not take effect, as regards the agent, before it becomes known to him, and as regards third persons, before it becomes known to them.
Read as a practical rule: until your attorney knows, they can still bind you. Until the buyer, the bank or the sub-registrar knows, they are entitled to treat the old authority as live. That gap between your decision and their knowledge is the exposure window, and closing it is the entire exercise.
Section 3 of the Powers-of-Attorney Act 1882 points the same way from the other side. Someone who acts in good faith under a power of attorney is protected if the power had been revoked and they did not know.
Writing cancelled on it does nothing
The Supreme Court dealt with exactly this in Amar Nath v Gian Chand in 2022. Merely writing the word cancelled on a registered power of attorney, or drawing a line through it, does not render it null and void. There must be a cancellation, and it must further be brought to the notice of the third party.
So the striking-through that feels decisive is worth nothing on its own. What counts is the act of revocation plus proof that the people who might rely on the document were told.
What actually closes the window
One warning before any of this. If anything has already been committed under the power of attorney, an agreement to sell, a development arrangement, money paid to the attorney, do not revoke first and ask afterwards. Revoking without sufficient cause can itself found a claim for compensation against you. Get the position assessed before the deed is executed.
There is no single statutory checklist, so treat the following as risk management aimed squarely at the knowledge requirement in Section 208.
Execute a deed of revocation. Where the original power of attorney was registered, register the revocation at the same sub-registrar's office, so anyone searching the record finds it. Serve written notice on the attorney by a method that produces proof of delivery, and keep that proof. Publish a notice in a newspaper circulating where the property is, in English and in the local language, which is the customary way of putting the world on notice. Notify the parties who are actually likely to rely on it: the bank, the housing society, the tenant, the buyer if a transaction is live.
Be clear about the status of these steps. Practitioners recommend all of them. None of them is written into a section that says you must. They matter because each one builds evidence that knowledge reached the people Section 208 cares about.
The power of attorney that cannot simply be revoked
One important exception. Section 202 of the Contract Act says that where the agent has an interest in the property which forms the subject-matter of the agency, the agency cannot, in the absence of an express contract, be terminated to the prejudice of that interest.
This is the agency coupled with interest, and it is why a power of attorney described as irrevocable sometimes really is difficult to withdraw. It usually arises where the attorney has paid something, or has rights under a development or sale arrangement.
Note what it does not mean. The Supreme Court reiterated in 2025 that a general power of attorney, even one labelled irrevocable, creates agency and does not by itself transfer ownership. Calling it irrevocable does not make the holder the owner.
What happens when the principal dies
Under Section 201 of the Contract Act, an agency is terminated by the principal, meaning the person who gave the power, dying or becoming of unsound mind. So a power of attorney granted by a parent ends automatically on their death, unless the attorney genuinely had an interest in the property itself, which is the narrow Section 202 exception.
Heirs routinely discover this the hard way, when someone tries to sell an estate property on a POA the deceased signed. After death, the authority to deal with the property comes from succession, not from the old document, which means the right instrument depends on the asset: a grant of probate or letters of administration for immovable property, a succession certificate for debts and securities, and a legal heir certificate for the administrative steps that follow.
The exception in Section 202 can survive death where the agent genuinely holds an interest in the subject-matter, which is a question about the underlying arrangement rather than the wording of the POA.