Establishing who is entitled to what
Before anything can be divided, the shares have to be established: which depends on whether the property is ancestral or self-acquired, who has died and when, whether there was a will, and which succession law applies.
The 2005 amendment gave daughters coparcenary rights by birth in ancestral property, and the Supreme Court has since confirmed that this applies regardless of whether the father was alive on the date of the amendment. In practice we still meet families operating on the older assumption.
Three routes, in increasing order of cost
Litigation is the last of these, not the first.
The applications that matter more than the main suit
In a contested partition, the interim orders often determine the practical outcome. An injunction restraining sale or alienation, a receiver to manage and collect rents, and directions to account for income already received all shape what is left to divide at the end.
Where one co-owner is in exclusive possession, mesne profits for the period of exclusion can be claimed. That claim is frequently overlooked and is often what brings a reluctant party to the table.