Does a daughter have any share in her mother's family property?

A pre-requisite condition required for a property to be an Ancestral property is that it should be owned by the great grand father followed by the grand father, father & present generation, all in this linear generation living & enjoying the property.

The property should not have ever partitioned & shared or distributed to any of the Hindu Coparceners, as in any linear generation as mentioned above, in other words, it should be intact single property which is being used jointly by all members of the Hindu Joint family. Therefore, all property inherited by a male Hindu from his father, father's father, or father's father's father, is ancestral property.

The essential feature of inheritance of ancestral property according to the Mitakshara law under the Hindu Succession Act is that the man inherits from any of his three immediate paternal ancestors, namely, his father, father's father and father's father's father, is ancestral property as regards his male issue, and his son acquires jointly with him, an interest in it by birth. Their rights attach to it at the moment of their birth. However, with the amendment in 2005 in the Hindu Succession Act the daughters are entitled to equal inheritance rights along with other male siblings, which was not available to them prior to the Hindu Succession Act .

“The new Section 6 provides for parity of rights in the coparcenary property among the male and the female members of a joint Hindu family on and from September 9, 2005.

“According to the new Section 6, the daughter of a coparcener becomes a coparcener by birth in her own rights and liabilities in the same manner as the son. The declaration in Section 6, the daughter of the coparcener shall have the same rights and liabilities in the coparcenary property as she would have been a son is unambiguous and unequivocal,” which has been pronounced by various judgement.

Therefore, if your property falls within such ambit then your wife, her mother and their other siblings are equally entitled for the share in your father’s property.

Further, please clarify, whether your wife's father left his Will? If there is no Will then your daughter can file a suit for partition thereby demanding her mother's share in the property. In case there is a Will then you can challenge the Will and thereby demanding your wife's share in the property.