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.
One Karnataka point is worth knowing before you take a date for granted. Karnataka had its own state amendment on daughters' coparcenary rights before the central amendment of 2005, so where the dispute concerns a partition, a sale or a death from the 1990s, the date from which the right runs in this state may be earlier than 9 September 2005. Have that checked on the facts of your family rather than assuming the central date settles everything.
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.
Two further findings from that judgment come up constantly in practice. A daughter is to be given a share equal to a son even where a preliminary decree has already been passed, in pending final decree proceedings or in appeal. And a plea of oral partition is not ordinarily to be accepted, because the Explanation to Section 6(5) recognises a partition made by a registered instrument or by a decree of a court. Only in an exceptional case, where an oral partition is supported by public documents and was in fact worked out as though by a decree, may it be accepted. A plea resting on oral evidence alone is to be rejected outright.
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.
Where the father died without a will, two provisions of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 do the work between them. His interest in coparcenary property devolves under Section 6(3) on a deemed partition, and on that partition the daughter is allotted the same share as a son. His self-acquired property devolves under Section 8 read with the Schedule, where a daughter sits among the Class I heirs and takes equally with the sons, the widow and the mother.
The money in the bank is a separate exercise
Land and a house are one problem. Bank balances, fixed deposits, shares and mutual funds are another, and most families discover this only when a bank refuses to release anything. Where the father died intestate, the usual route is a court authorisation, and our guide on how to get a succession certificate sets out the petition, the documents the court expects, the publication of notice, and the realistic timeline and cost. Start it early. It runs on its own clock and does not wait for the property dispute to be resolved.
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.
Before any of that, collect what will decide it: the deeds showing how the property came into the family, an encumbrance certificate that will reveal a sale made behind your back, the khata and revenue entries, the death certificates, and any partition or release deed that has been produced against you. If a registered release deed carries your signature and you have no memory of signing it, say so at the first opportunity and take advice, because otherwise that single document will decide the case.