Coparcenary
Legally reviewed by Advocate Naresh Kalra -- see full credentials -- reviewer credit only, no consultation link, per platform editorial policy (see /editorial-guidelines/).
A coparcenary is the specific class of Hindu joint-family members who acquire a right by birth in ancestral property, up to four generations of male lineal descendants -- and, since the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, daughters equally -- distinct from the wider Hindu Undivided Family, which can include other members without that birthright share.
Coparcenary property is distinct from separate or self-acquired property: a coparcener's share arises by
birth into the joint family, not by inheritance or gift, and can be demanded through partition at any time.
Before 2005, only male descendants held this birthright; the 2005 amendment to Section 6 of the Hindu
Succession Act, 1956 extended the same coparcenary right to daughters. The Supreme Court's 2020 judgment in
Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma confirmed this
right vests in a daughter by birth regardless of whether her father-coparcener was alive on the 2005
amendment's commencement date, resolving years of conflicting case law on that specific point.
