Father & brothers refusing 2 share money from ancestral property
Hi,
Please bear with me, as this is a complicated case I’ve had to write a lot. Please do take the time to read the entire mail.
My father had ancestral agricultural land in western UP, now that area is in Uttrakhand. This land came to him from his father as a division of property amongst six brothers somewhere in the 60’ or 70’s.
My father to save this land from sealing , which was happening sometime in the late 1980’s to early 1990’s divided this land into four - put some under his name, some in my real brothers name and the remaining two portions in my names of my two step brothers; two children from his second wife. All three children were minors at this point in time (in fact all four of us were minors, and I am the only girl child). We all lived together i.e him, his second wife, her two children, my brother, and I. As it goes in Hindu families, he was the Karta of the family.
He kept selling bits and pieces of the land in his name over the years, I guess to run the family etc; although he was actively farming on this land all long. But till 2006 he hadn’t sold a substantial amount so most of the land was still intact, especially the one on my real brother’s name and the ones in the names of the step brothers.
In 2006 he started to sell a lot of the land in the names of my step brothers and with that money bought them houses, got them married and put large sums of it in FD’s so as to secure their future. He did something similar with my brother as well; he did not buy him a house but gave him money and put a lot of it in FD’s so that he could earn interest on it.
The rest of the money he put in buying a lot of land in his own name, in Uttrakhand and made a boutique mountain resort with about 12 boutique cottages. At this point in time I tried to ask my bother what was happening, he said he is not clued in on anything as “the father” is the one who is making all these decisions, he is the Karta and it’s not our place to question him.
Even though I never asked my father anything directly for some reason he in a conversation told me that the new land he had bought for the boutique resort is also in my name, he did not clearly mention as to who else’s name is that land in. Since I was working in a large MNC and in a metro city I did not have the time to go and do a check on what he told me and just took his word for it. Then about 2 years later I learnt that the new land was only on my father’s name. So I brought it up with him and he completely denied that he had ever had a conversation with me on the ownership of that land, moreover he said that that new land and the resort that was built on it was a part of his “Own hard work;” money that he had earned over years and had nothing to do with the sale of the ancestral land.
So I waited for 3-4 years for him to come clear with his intentions and then in 2010 he clearly mentioned that “why should you expect anything from either the agricultural/ farm land or the new land since it was all in the names of the boys in the first place and it was for the boys. So whatever was sold of it was given to the boys and the boys have said that they do not want to share what is theirs with you, so that is the end of the story.” My step mother also told me the same thing. The boys however never said anything to me directly; I guess they didn’t need to since my father was doing all the work for them. At this point I had also told him that I will consult a lawyer on this matter and will take it on from there, which I did not follow through with. Mainly because I did not want to take a long legal route.
Now it’s 2016 and I’m tired of waiting for an amicable solution. I have tried to approach my father through some family friends etc as well but they all say that he is hell bent on “how does she have a share!?”
In fact since the last 3-4 years he refuses to speak with me at all, not also on the phone. His three son’s are also following suit, they also refuse to speak with me; I have been labelled the black sheep of the family. As far as I’m concerned that is not a problem at all.
I just want to know where I stand on this on the legal front; do I have a legal claim here? Althought most of the ancestral property is already sold ...Currently there is a resort, 2 flats in a metropolitan city, 2 flats in Uttrakhand, the farmhouse and the FD’s.
Please advise.