Partnership registration on death of a partner turns on whether the post-death business is a new firm or a true continuation.

Where a partner died and the trustees or legal representatives entered the business under the partnership arrangement and will, the existing firm was not treated as continuing unchanged for income-tax registration purposes. The partnership deed protected the business from automatic dissolution, but the will left the trustees discretion whether to continue the business and on what terms, so the post-death arrangement was regarded as a new partnership formed by their election. On that basis, renewal of registration was refused because the application did not support the original firm in the manner required, and fresh registration also failed because the new partnership was not the one embodied in the original deed.

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Issues: Whether, on the death of a partner and the entry of his trustees or legal representatives under the partnership arrangement and will, the firm could claim renewal of registration or fresh registration under the income-tax law.

Analysis: The partnership deed provided that the death of a partner would not terminate the business and that the legal representative of the deceased partner would benefit from the agreement. The will, however, did not make the trustees ipso facto partners; it left them with a discretion whether to continue the business and on what terms. On that footing, the continuance after the partner's death was treated as a new partnership formed by the trustees' election, not as an unchanged continuation of the old firm. Since the old partnership deed did not constitute the new firm and the renewal application was not supported in the manner required for the original firm, renewal could not be granted. Fresh registration also failed because the supposed new partnership was not the partnership originally embodied in the old deed.

Conclusion: The refusal of both renewal of registration and fresh registration was upheld.

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