LILABATI RANA Vs. LALIT MOHAN DEY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal arises out of a suit brought by the plaintiff-respondent for dissolution of a partnership of business and for adjustment of accounts.

(2.) The plaintiff's case was that that two families the Pals and the Deys joined in a partnership business. Nafar Chandra Pal, the predecessor in interest of defendants Nos. 9 to 13, and the Deys who were four brothers, viz., Chandi, Lalit, Harimohan and Satis, entered into a partnership under the name and style of Pal and Sarkar for carrying on a business of money-lending and as gold and silversmiths. The plaintiff as one of the four members of the joint family is entitled to a two anna share in the said business. The plaintiff alleges that he did not receive any payment from the defendants since 1936, and that he did not want to continue as a partner. He further alleges that he had dissolved the partnership by a verbal notice on the 2nd May, 1943. As there had been no accounting between the parties, the plaintiff prayed that an account might be taken of the firm in suit from its commencement till the date of dissolution. The plaintiff who prayed for a declaration that the partnership had been dissolved on the 2nd May 1949, on the service of a verbal notice, or alternatively that the partnership be dissolved by a decree of the Court.

(3.) The principal defence was that the suit, as framed, was not maintainable, as the notice purported to have been served on the 2nd May 1943, was a verbal one which did not satisfy the conditions required under Section 43 of the Indian Partnership Act. Secondly, the partnership, if any, was between Nafar Pal and Chandi personally, and the plaintiff or the other brothers of Chandi were not interested in the partnership at all. Thirdly, even if Chandi had entered into the partnership as the karta of the joint family, the plaintiff was not entitled as a member of the joint family to pray for a dissolution of the partnership. There were other defences also which need not be referred to in detail at this stage.