Bengaluru and Mumbai, Oct. 16 -- At the heart of the dispute in the Venu Srinivasan family is a fundamental question: did a restructuring of the TVS group leave the two siblings with unequal business inheritances?

Lakshmi Venu, 42 years old, who once ran the larger company by revenue, now heads an auto parts business that has struggled to grow, while her younger brother, Sudarshan Venu, 37, heads the holding company that controls TVS Motor Co. Ltd, India's third-largest two-wheeler maker, and the group's lending businesses.

The restructuring, over a series of decisions that started in 2022, shifted a valuable TVS Motor stake out of the business Lakshmi ran, leaving the siblings with very different assets and growth trajectories.

The di...