# Encroachment on NRI property: what to do first

By Saurabh Garg, founder·9 min read·Published 2026-06-11·Updated 2026-08-09
**Short answer:** Three clocks decide what you can do about an encroachment on property in India. A summary suit for possession under Section 6 of the Specific Relief Act, 1963 must be filed within six months of dispossession and does not require you to prove title. A suit on the strength of title under Section 5 stays open far longer. And under Article 65 of the Limitation Act, 1963, twelve years of hostile, open, continuous possession can extinguish your right to evict. The first week decides which clock you are on.

# Encroachment on NRI Property in India: What to Do in the First Week

**Six months. That is the window for the one remedy in Indian law that gets you possession back without proving your title, and it starts running on the day you were dispossessed, not on the day you found out.**

Somebody is on your property. A neighbour has moved a boundary wall. A caretaker has stopped leaving. A tenant's brother has moved in and the tenant has stopped answering. You are in London and the person inside is in Bangalore, and every week you spend deciding is a week that improves their position and worsens yours.

This guide is for the owner who is past prevention. The prevention side, and the seven proofs that stop this before it starts, are in [protecting vacant property from encroachment](/guides/protecting-vacant-property-encroachment-nri).

## The three clocks

Everything in this situation is a limitation question. Know which clock you are on before you call anyone.

**Six months, under Section 6 of the Specific Relief Act, 1963.** A summary suit to recover possession on the strength of prior possession alone. You prove that you held the property and were dispossessed without your consent. You do not prove title, which is what makes it fast. No appeal lies from the decree. Filed late, this door shuts and does not reopen.

**Twelve years, under Article 65 of the Limitation Act, 1963.** A suit for possession based on title. This is the long route, and the same twelve years work against you from the other side: once an occupier completes twelve years of hostile, open, continuous, exclusive possession, *Section 27* extinguishes your right to recover the property.

**Three years from discovery**, where the encroachment came in on a forged document rather than through the gate. A suit to cancel an instrument on the ground of fraud runs from the date you discovered the fraud. If a registered document is involved, treat this as a document problem as much as a possession problem and pull the records set out in [how to check your own title](/guides/property-fraud-nri-india-how-to-check).

The gap between the first clock and the second is the whole of your bargaining position. Inside six months you have a fast remedy that needs almost no evidence. Outside it, you have a title suit that runs for years while the occupier lives in your property for free.

## The first three actions

Do these in this order, inside the first week, before you decide whether to sue.

**1/ Fix the date.** Get someone to the property with a phone. Dated, geotagged photographs of the occupation from outside and, where safe, inside. Photograph the boundary against the survey markers. Get the neighbour or the society secretary to say in writing when the occupation began, even in a WhatsApp message, because the date of dispossession is the fact your six-month window hangs on and you will otherwise be guessing at it in an affidavit.

**2/ Send a legal notice, that week.** An Indian advocate sends it by registered post to the occupier at the property address, stating your ownership, that the occupation is without your consent, and demanding vacant possession by a stated date. This is not a formality. It is the document that converts a quiet occupation into one you have objected to on a date, which is the element the occupier needs and now cannot have. A notice costs a few thousand rupees. A title suit costs years.

**3/ Report it in writing to the police and to the municipal body.** File a written complaint at the local police station and keep the acknowledgement. Where the entry involved forgery, impersonation or trespass, ask for an FIR on those offences. Write to the municipal or revenue office recording that you are the owner on the record and that a third party is in occupation. You are building a dated public trail, and that trail is what a court reads two years later.

Notice the shape of all three. None of them is litigation. All three are dated records that break the occupier's story.

## What the police will do, and what they will not

You will be told this is a civil matter. That answer is mostly correct and it is the part owners abroad find hardest to accept.

Indian law puts title and possession disputes with the civil courts. The police can act on a fresh, forcible dispossession that threatens public peace, and an Executive Magistrate can pass a holding order to stop a breach of the peace. Read what that order does: it decides who was in possession on a date and freezes the position. It does not decide who owns the property, and it will not hand you the keys because you hold the deed.

Where documents were forged, the criminal case is real and worth filing. Cheating, forgery and criminal breach of trust are offences under the *Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023*. Where the police decline to register an FIR, an application to the Magistrate under *Section 175(3) of the BNSS* can compel it. Run the criminal complaint alongside the civil suit and expect the civil suit to be the one that returns the property.

## How the occupier's claim fails

Adverse possession sounds unbeatable and it is not. The occupier has to prove every element, and most encroachers fail on one of them.

**Permission kills it.** Possession held with your consent is not hostile and never ripens into title, however long it runs. A caretaker agreement, a registered leave and licence agreement, or a dated message where you allowed a relative to stay are each fatal to the claim.

**A documented break resets it.** Continuity has to be unbroken for the full twelve years. A dated inspection where your representative entered, a legal notice served and received, a period the property stood empty: each one is a gap the occupier has to explain away.

**Records in your name undercut it.** Tax paid by you, the mutation record current in your name, utility accounts in your name. The doctrine rewards the owner who did nothing. Records are proof that you did something. Where the mutation still names a deceased parent, fix that first, and [khata and mutation for the remote owner](/guides/khata-mutation-remote-owner) sets out how.

The Supreme Court is not fond of the doctrine either. In *State of Haryana v Mukesh Kumar* (2011) 10 SCC 404 it called adverse possession "irrational, illogical and wholly disproportionate" and asked the Union of India to consider changing the law. Parliament has not. In *Ravinder Kaur Grewal v Manjit Kaur* (2019) 8 SCC 729, a three-judge bench held that a person who perfects title by adverse possession can use it as a sword and sue on it. The twelve years still run, and the occupier who completes them can come after you.

## Where the occupier is your tenant

Different problem, different law. A tenant who stops paying and stays is not an encroacher. Possession began with your permission, so the adverse possession clock has not started, and eviction runs under the state rent legislation or the tenancy agreement rather than through a possession suit. The route is set out in [how to evict a tenant in India as an NRI](/guides/how-to-evict-tenant-india-nri). The one mistake to avoid is cutting the water or changing the locks, which turns your strong case into their police complaint.

## FAQ

**What should an NRI do first when someone encroaches on their property in India?**
Fix the date of dispossession with dated, geotagged photographs and a written statement from a neighbour or society secretary. Then have an Indian advocate send a legal notice by registered post demanding vacant possession. Then file a written complaint with the local police and the municipal or revenue office and keep the acknowledgements. All three in the first week, because the fast remedy expires six months from dispossession.

**How long does an NRI have to file a case for encroachment in India?**
A summary suit under Section 6 of the Specific Relief Act, 1963 must be filed within six months of dispossession, and it recovers possession on prior possession alone without proof of title. After six months the remedy is a suit on the strength of title, where the twelve-year period under Article 65 of the Limitation Act, 1963 applies. After twelve years of hostile, open and continuous possession, Section 27 extinguishes the right to recover the property.

**Will the police remove an encroacher from my property in India?**
In most cases no. Indian law treats title and possession disputes as civil matters and the police will refer the owner to court. The police can act on a fresh, forcible dispossession that threatens public peace, and an Executive Magistrate can pass a holding order, but that order records who held possession on a date and does not restore title. Where documents were forged, file an FIR for the criminal offences alongside the civil suit.

**Can someone claim ownership of my land in India after occupying it?**
Only by proving twelve years of possession that was hostile, open, continuous and exclusive, under Article 65 of the Limitation Act, 1963. Possession held with the owner's permission is never hostile and never ripens into title. A served legal notice, a dated inspection, or records and tax receipts in the owner's name each break an element the occupier has to prove.

**Does a legal notice stop adverse possession in India?**
A legal notice served and received puts the occupier on notice that the possession is objected to, and it creates a dated record that the owner did not sleep on the claim. It is evidence rather than a switch, and it works alongside dated inspections and current records in the owner's name. Send it the week the encroachment is discovered rather than after negotiations fail.

## Someone who can stand in the room this week

Distance is not measured in hours. It is measured in who can stand in the room. 66 MG Road puts a named person at your property, takes the dated photographs, meets the society or the revenue office, and gets the file to a local advocate while the six-month window is still open. We are not a law firm and we do not litigate. We are the part that makes litigation unnecessary or, where it is necessary, well evidenced. Bangalore and Hyderabad have our own staff. Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Gurgaon are covered through broker partners, which is a slower answer and we say so before you hire us.

*This is general information, not tax or legal advice. Confirm your own position with a qualified adviser.*

*Saurabh Garg, founder, 66 MG Road*

## Sources

- Recovery of Possession under Sections 5 and 6, Specific Relief Act 1963, Drishti Judiciary: [https://www.drishtijudiciary.com/to-the-point/ttp-specific-relief-act/recovery-of-immovable-property](https://www.drishtijudiciary.com/to-the-point/ttp-specific-relief-act/recovery-of-immovable-property)

- The Limitation Act, 1963 (Articles 64, 65 and 112, periods of limitation for suits for possession), Bhatt & Joshi Associates: [https://bhattandjoshiassociates.com/what-is-the-period-of-limitation-for-a-suit-for-possession-of-immovable-property/](https://bhattandjoshiassociates.com/what-is-the-period-of-limitation-for-a-suit-for-possession-of-immovable-property/)

- Ravinder Kaur Grewal v Manjit Kaur (2019) 8 SCC 729, full text, Indian Kanoon: [https://indiankanoon.org/doc/199096823/](https://indiankanoon.org/doc/199096823/)

- State of Haryana v Mukesh Kumar (2011) 10 SCC 404, full text, Indian Kanoon: [https://indiankanoon.org/doc/290532/](https://indiankanoon.org/doc/290532/)

- Section 145 CrPC cannot be used to get possession on the strength of title, The Tribune: [https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/punjab/section-145-can-t-be-used-to-get-land-possession-hc-868365](https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/punjab/section-145-can-t-be-used-to-get-land-possession-hc-868365)

- Sudhir Rao, How to reclaim property sold through a forged power of attorney in India (Specific Relief Act, BNS and BNSS, Limitation Act): [https://sudhirrao.com/how-to-reclaim-property-sold-through-a-forged-power-of-attorney-in-india/](https://sudhirrao.com/how-to-reclaim-property-sold-through-a-forged-power-of-attorney-in-india/)

Information on this page is as on 2026-08-09. Rules, rates, deadlines and government portals change without notice, so verify against the official source before you act. This page is for information only. It is not tax or legal advice, and it is not a substitute for a qualified adviser who knows your position.

## Compare and cost

- [The NRI Property Management Companies in India: A Comparison You Can Check](/guides/best-nri-property-management-companies-india)
- [What NRI Property Management Costs in India: The Four Models and What Hides in Each](/guides/nri-property-management-cost-india)
- [NoBroker NRI Services Review: What the Pages Promise and What They Leave Out](/guides/nobroker-nri-services-review)

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