Genuine firm definition tightened - benamidar relationships can disqualify firm status; registration defects require prompt rectification. The amendment defines a firm as not genuine where any partner was a benamidar of another partner (not spouse or minor child) in relation to any part of his share during the previous year, and substitutes procedural sub-sections requiring the Income-tax Officer to intimate defects in registration applications or declarations, allow a one-month opportunity to rectify, and on failure to rectify to reject the application or declare the registration ineffective for the relevant assessment year.