Your matter is argued in India by advocates enrolled with the Bar Council of Punjab & Haryana, while you follow it from wherever you live. You are not asked to fly in for routine hearings.
With two questions: did he leave a will, and what kind of asset is it. For land and houses, inheritance is generally given effect through mutation in the revenue records on the basis of the death certificate and proof of heirship. For bank accounts, shares and other debts and securities, a succession certificate from the District Court is usually what the institution will insist on. We tell you which route your specific assets need before you spend anything.
Usually not for the bulk of it. The petition is filed and prosecuted by your advocate under a Power of Attorney. Courts in India increasingly permit evidence by video conferencing, and where an appearance is genuinely unavoidable we consolidate it into a single visit rather than several.
Your residence abroad and your citizenship do not by themselves take away an inherited share. Rights in ancestral and coparcenary property depend on the succession law that applies to your family and on the devolution that has already taken place — and since the 2005 amendment to the Hindu Succession Act, daughters are coparceners on the same footing as sons. What does erode a claim is delay, because in the meantime mutations get recorded and property gets sold.
Inheritance is treated very differently from purchase. Under FEMA, a non-resident Indian or an OCI cardholder cannot buy agricultural land, plantation property or a farmhouse in India, but may acquire such property by inheritance. So land that comes to you from a parent generally does not fall foul of the restriction that would have blocked you from buying it. What you may then do with it is a separate question we advise on.
In most cases yes. A single will drawn in Canada or the UK to deal with worldwide assets tends to be slow and contentious to prove in India. A short, separate, India-specific will covering only your Indian assets — expressly stated not to revoke your foreign will — is far easier for an Indian court and for the revenue authorities to act on.
Tell us about your matter and an enrolled advocate will review it and come back to you with a written view — we work around your time zone, not ours.