I want to know about the right of daughter in the father’s property. Respected Sir, I need your valuable suggestions towards property rights of my mother and her sister. Their grandfather had few agriculture land and home property. He had settled those property among his four sons equally using a “kurra cettu” – local agreement during 1966. One of the sons is my maternal grand father. He had 3 sons and 2 daughters (including my mother). Recently came to know that he has executed a family settlement deed to the sons equally. My mother and her sister did not aware of it and they had registered the property in the registrar office in 2013.

Do we (my mother and my mother sister) have any rights to fight as the property came from  the grandfather considering as ancestor property?

Question from (Property Law) Tamil Nadu

Your mother and her sister have share in the property therefore, they can challenge the transaction by filing a civil suit. It was ancestral property and your mother’s grandfather had settled among his children. After the family settlement the nature of property had changed. It became the separate property of each son. Your mother along with her siblings have coparcenary right in that property.

That coparcenary right is absolute in respect of that property because it was not the self acquired property of her father. He got that property from his father after the family settlement. However, the nature of property has changed but it is still a joint family property so far as relates to your mother and her siblings.

File a civil suit

Your mother and her sister should file a civil suit for cancellation of registration of settlement deed. That deed is bad in the eye of law because your maternal grandfather had executed in violation of the settled principle of law. It is a joint family property and all the coparceners have right therein from by birth.

According to Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, the daughter has equal share in the ancestral property. When an ancestral property is divided or partitioned among the coparceners it becomes a coparcenary property of each coparcener. Your maternal grandfather was a coparcener at the time of settlement. At the moment he received the property after settlement, his children became coparcener in respect of that property.

Therefore, your mother got right in the property immediately when their father received it after settlement. So, your mother has the right in the property and her father cannot transfer that property to his sons by eliminating the daughters.