CHICAGO: Corrupt elements teaming up with street mafias and political thugs in India have been quite active aggressively grabbing landed property, a good number of time illegally and thru unauthorized methods in order to cash in on the real estate boom in recent years. Non Resident Indians (NRIs) are among the biggest victims, among others, since most of the time they are away from their land or property.
Anil Narang from Indiana and Dharam Paul in Canada (names changed) found to their dismay while going to Madhya Pradesh and Punjab that their ancestral land had been swallowed by unauthorized tenants and was littered with ramshackle houses and huts. When they tried to get their property back thru legal channels they faced lot of hurdles besides threats from street mafias.
To their dismay, they also found it was not easy for them to get competent attorneys well versed in laws of the land and with courage to face the wrath of mafias backed by corrupt political clouts.
Comes then Nidhi Singh, a young practicing attorney in Punjab who picked up the cudgel back in 2000 to take up the cases of hapless victims, mostly NRIs, from across the globe, and pitch legal battles to thrash these demons in their dens.
In less than a decade, Nidhi ‘s law firm, NRI Legal Services headquartered in Chandigarh, won confidence and accolades from its clients world-wide and has now blossomed into a full fledged facility providing host of services – Land Search ,Transfer of Land & Property, Partition of Land and Property , Check Illegal Transfer / Sale/Occupation related issues ,Landlord / Tenant Disputes ,Real Estate / Buying & Selling of property ,Succession certificates/Will/POA – with twelve attorneys at its head office and 300 plus associate attorneys working for it across the country.
Huge success and a great surge in business induced Nidhi Singh to branch out abroad. The law firm is probably the first one from India to have overseas facilities. It had already marked its presence in UK, Canada and Australia and has now come to the US too.
It launched its office in Skokie-Chicago recently with two front ranking real estate business persons – Dahyabhai Prajapati and Vijay Puniyani – in charge. It already has chalked out plans going to New York, New Jersey and Atlanta. “We will be there and in the West coast in the course of next six to eight months,” beamed Vijay Puniyani confidently.
Nidhi Singh, the founder NRI Legal Services with a doctorate in history and a law degree under her belt, has excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to establish and effective working relations with people in multi-cultural environment. In a talk to this paper she said that NRI Legal Services is uniquely positioned as a legal management company to help NRIs with monitoring, supervising, representing them for both in-court and out of court work, to protect their land and properties in India.”
“We are not a restrictive law firm but operate on a much more flexible platform obviating the need for our clients to be personally present in India. Our experienced team of 300 plus lawyers across the country ensure a complete circle of protection penetrating almost every part of rural and urban India.”
NRI Legal Services, which turned Mindsprings (India) Private Limited in 2006, basks under its reputation of transparency and a great degree of success. Nidhi Singh said that the rate of success is “nearly ninety percent as we would not touch a case which has poor chance of success legally or is timed out by circumstances beyond control.” Another reason for success is that “we quote a particular fee before accepting a brief and we stick by it gain or loss and this lends to a great transparency in our dealings.”
She further observed that all their offices overseas in India and abroad are well equipped with top of the art technology that includes integration of voice communication through VOIP and video conferencing. The overseas offices are also directly linked up with their offices in India and the online case management system makes all information available to the clients fast and quick.
“Our mission is to ensure that no matter in which part of India the property is located or legal issue is pending in the court, our team will always be able to coordinate, supervise, monitor and report all progress and updates to our clients,” she pointed out. Another thing that she asserted was that no matter what “we will fight only thru legal channels and would not indulge in hanky panky or muscle business.”
Vijay Puniyani of Chicago office said that he would not have vouched for the company had he not visited the Chandigarh office or had talks with some of the company’s clients in UK and Canada. “The service provided by NRI Legal Services headed by Nidhi Singh is a real boon to many a beleaguered NRI and I have no hesitation in saying that we will have the same measure of success that the company has achieved in India,” he said.
Dahyabhai Prajapati, besides being a real estate magnate, has extensive involvement in community organizations like Manav Seva Mandir. He asserted that NRIs do need a reliable platform in India for protecting their property and property rights. “Our company will meet this need fully,” he added.
Ramesh Soparawala
India Post News Service
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