This remains one of the most commonly misunderstood positions in Indian family property law, including among people who ought to know better.
The 2005 amendment
The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 amended Section 6 so that in a joint Hindu family governed by Mitakshara law, the daughter of a coparcener becomes, by birth, a coparcener in her own right in the same manner as the son. She has the same rights and the same liabilities in respect of coparcenary property.
Marriage is irrelevant. The amendment contains no exception for married daughters, and a daughter does not lose her coparcenary rights on marriage.
Vineeta Sharma settled the confusion
For fifteen years there was conflicting authority on whether the father had to be alive on the date the amendment came into force. In Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma (2020) a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court held that the right is conferred by birth, and therefore it does not matter whether the father was alive on 9 September 2005. The earlier contrary view in Prakash v. Phulavati was overruled on this point.
The amendment does not disturb a partition that was already effected before 20 December 2004, where that partition was by a registered instrument or by a decree of court. Families sometimes produce an unregistered or backdated "partition" to defeat a daughter's claim. Courts examine these closely, and an oral partition unsupported by public documents and contemporaneous conduct will not readily be accepted.
Coparcenary property and self-acquired property are different
- In coparcenary (ancestral) property, a daughter has a right by birth, exactly like a son, and can demand partition.
- In the father's self-acquired property, he is free to dispose of it as he wishes by will. If he dies intestate, a daughter inherits as a Class I heir along with the sons, the widow and the mother, in equal shares.
If your share is being denied
Send a written demand, then file a partition suit seeking a declaration of your share, partition by metes and bounds, and an injunction restraining alienation in the meantime. Do not delay; while the right itself does not lapse, third-party sales in the interim make recovery far messier.