PARTHAS TEXTILES Vs. UNION OF INDIA UOI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner is a firm registered under the Indian Partnership Act. It carries business in textiles at Kottayam. The firm has started business on 12th March 1960. There is no dispute that the petitioner firm is a registered firm.

(2.) There are other four firms involved in this case. They are M/s Parthas Textiles, Kayamkulam, M/s Parthas, Trivandrum, M/s Parthas Textiles, Nagarcoil and M/s Parthas Textiles, Alleppey. These are also firms registered under the Partnership Act on 7th July 1975, 17th November 1976, 1st September 1978 and 17th August 1981 respectively.

(3.) The question involved in this case is whether the four partnership firms mentioned above are branches of the petitioner or not. This question assumes importance for the purpose of determining the contribution payable under S.7A of the Employee's Provident Fund, and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, for short, the Act. Petitioner contended that the four firms at Kayamkulam, Trivandrum, Nagarcoil and Alleppey are independent firms doing independent business even though some of the partners in these firms are partners in the petitioner firm. Petitioner also pointed out that in the four firms, apart from some of the partners in the petitioner firm, there are other partners also. It was further pointed out that the four firms were treated as independent firms doing independent business for the purpose of registration of the firm under the Income Tax Act and other various enactments, and these firms were assessed separately by the Income Tax Department. They have got permanent account numbers and separate licences and General Sales Tax and Central Sales Tax registration.