Genuine partnership required for tax registration; a nominal guardian arrangement for minors cannot be treated as a registrable firm.

Registration of a firm under the income-tax scheme is available only where the partnership deed reflects a genuine firm with the actual partners and their true profit shares. The authority may examine whether the persons named are real partners and whether the stated shares correspond to the beneficial ownership of capital and profits. Where a guardian is named as partner but the admitted position shows that the capital and profit entitlement really belong to the minors she represents, the arrangement is only nominal and does not disclose a registrable partnership. On that basis, the firm was held not entitled to registration.

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Issues: Whether a firm could be registered under the income-tax provisions when the deed named a guardian as partner, but the admitted facts showed that the capital and profit share really belonged to the minors represented by her, and the firm was not a genuine partnership in the names shown in the instrument.

Analysis: Registration of a firm under the statutory scheme is available only to a firm constituted by an instrument of partnership that truly specifies the actual partners and their real shares. The taxing authority is entitled to scrutinise whether the alleged partners are real partners, whether the shares shown are genuine, and whether the profits credited under the deed correspond to the true beneficial entitlements. The scheme of registration is designed to support assessment of a real firm in accordance with its true constitution, and not to recognise a simulated or nominal arrangement. Where the deed shows a guardian as partner, but the capital attributed to her is in truth the minors' capital and the profit allocation is merely a device to represent the minors' interests, the instrument does not disclose a genuine partnership capable of registration.

Conclusion: The firm could not be registered under the relevant income-tax provision, and the answer was against the assessee.

Final Conclusion: Registration under the statutory scheme depends on a real and genuine partnership with correct disclosure of the actual partners and their shares; a nominal or simulated arrangement cannot be accepted merely because it is recorded in a deed.

Ratio Decidendi: For registration of a firm under the income-tax law, the instrument must evidence a genuine partnership with real partners and true shares; a simulated or nominee arrangement is not registrable.

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