RAMAVTAR SURAJMAL MODIAN ADULT Vs. BANARASIBAI MULCHAND MODI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Appeal arises out of an order passed by the Learned Single Judge on 29th November, 1996 in a suit for dissolution and accounts. By the order impugned before this Court the Learned Single Judge has appointed the Court Receiver as Receiver in charge of the assets of the partnership.

(2.) The primary relief that has been sought in the suit is dissolution and accounts of a partnership constituted under a deed of partnership dated 17th May, 1980. There were five partners under the original deed of partnership. The case of the Plaintiff, the First Respondent before the Court in these proceedings is that the business of the partnership was primarily carried on by the First Defendant, the Appellant before us, who is the brother of her deceased husband. The business of the partnership was according to the Plaintiff being looked after by the First Defendant. The contention of the Plaintiff is that some time in the year 1995 she obtained knowledge of the fact that the First Defendant had purportedly relied upon a deed of partnership of 1992 under which the original partnership came to be reconstituted by the addition of two partners and by the deletion of three partners who were not parties to the earlier document of 1980. The submission of the Plaintiff is that the document of 1992 was obtained by misrepresentation and fraud and that the signatures of the Plaintiff were obtained on the assurance that the document was not intended to be acted upon. On these averments, the Learned Single Judge was persuaded to accept the Motion for the appointment of a Receiver of the assets of the partnership.

(3.) The order of the Learned Single Judge has been questioned in these proceedings principally on the basis of the provisions of Section 69(2A) of the Indian Partnership Act, 1932. As amended in relation to the State of Maharashtra sub section (2A) provides that no suit to enforce any right for the dissolution of a firm or for accounts of a dissolved firm or any right or power to realise the property of a dissolved firm shall be instituted in any Court by or on behalf of any person suing as a partner in a firm against the firm or any person alleged to have been a partner in the firm, unless the firm is registered and the person suing is shown in the Register of Firms as a partner in the firm. The submission before the Court is that the deed of partnership of 1992 is not registered and therefore no suit for dissolution could be founded on the basis of an unregistered partnership. It was urged before us that the original partnership of 1980 was reconstituted when a fresh partnership was agreed upon between the parties in the year 1992. Consequently inasmuch as a reconstituted partnership amounted to a fresh agreement between the parties, it was urged that the suit for dissolution and accounts must fail in view of the circumstance that the partnership of 1992 has not been registered.