Joint and several liability permits individual solvency proof from each partner for warehouse-licence renewal.

Where partners of a warehouse-licence firm had expressly undertaken joint and several liability in the licence bond, the excise department was entitled to require each partner to furnish an individual solvency certificate for renewal of the licence. The firm's security was not treated as the exclusive source of assurance, because the partners' separate liability supported a demand for personal solvency proof from each of them. The challenge to that requirement failed, and the writ petition was rejected.

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Issues: Whether, after the partners of a warehouse-licence firm had undertaken joint and several liability, the excise department could require each partner to produce an individual solvency certificate for renewal of the licence.

Analysis: The licence bond executed by the firm recorded that all the partners accepted liability jointly and severally. In view of that undertaking, the department was entitled to insist upon solvency proof from each partner with reference to the several liability assumed by them. The contention that the department could look only to the security furnished by the firm's property was rejected.

Conclusion: The department was competent to call for individual solvency certificates from the partners, and the writ petition failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where partners have expressly undertaken joint and several liability, the authority may require solvency proof from each partner notwithstanding security furnished by the firm.

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