Dear experts,
I need some help understanding this situation in our family.
My father has three sons, I being the eldest. My father has middle-school education and started his life after marriage in a state of poverty. My mother worked to help our family earn our bread. I started assisting my father in his business since the age of 5. My brothers started assisting when they reached 8-10 years.
Due to nature of my father, the environment in our family was a lot worse than it could have been. He is an ill-tempered man with extremely rude attitude. Despite all of us helping him earn our bread, he beat us inhumanely (my mother and all us brothers) at the drop of a hat. My mother suffered the worst, followed by me. After 35-36 years of marriage, my mother finally succumbed to injuries received from beating by my father. Most of it is public knowledge as a large %age of these beatings were well in the broad daylight in public view.
Due to inhuman treatment meted out by my father, I started growing away from him day-by-day. Finally, at the age of 20 my father drove me out of the city with a promise to support me for 6 months to stand on my feet. I moved to a metro city, joined a computer course and started looking for ways to steady my life, which I eventually did. Differences between I and my dad kept increasing and I never looked back except for social occasions in my family.
When I was forced to leave my home, my family had become a stable middle-class family. Behind me our business kept growing. When my brothers reached adulthood they were given capital to start their own businesses, which they did. Today, both my brothers and my father have their own separate well-running businesses and overall our family classifies as upper-middle class.
While a formal partition in the family has never taken place, as on today, my father and two brothers have settled businesses. My father has also done an oral partition of our ancestral house (which was gifted to my late mother by my late grandfather).
Since I contributed the most in my family's up-rise (second only to my mother and father) I expect my father to give me my share of property. I requested my father to at least give me some space in my ancestral house (which is in my late mother's name). But he is adamant on not giving me 'anything' during his life-time. He says I can take my share after his death.
Question 1: Am I justified in expecting my father to give me 'my share' in 'his property' (my father's alone, excluding my brothers').
Question 2: Can I force a partition? Is bringing a partition suite a feasible idea in the circumstances? (Note: My father has no social commitments left and I am willing to support him for the remainder of his life even if my brothers don't).)
Question 3: Since no formal partition has ever taken place, and our family still classifies as a joint family (from legal perspective) can my brothers stake claim on properties earned and purchased by me (on the ground of everyone still being in a joint-family)?
Question 4: I have been told my father can't sell/gift the ancestral property to my brothers (since it's in my late mother's name). Is it correct?
Question 5: Will I automatically become the owner of 1/3rd of ancestral property or will I have to fight to get it. Since I don't live in the city, I don't have possession of it. (I asked even for one room in it, my father refused.)
