Partnership registration depends on an operative deed during the relevant period; retrospective recital alone cannot create earlier constitution.

Registration under section 26A required a firm to be constituted under an operative partnership instrument specifying partners' shares during the relevant period. On the material before the authorities, the supplementary deed showed that the new constitution of the firm came into existence only on 2 July 1953, not retrospectively from 1 January 1953. A retrospective recital could not by itself create an earlier partnership commencement in the absence of proof of a concluded prior agreement. The firm was therefore not entitled to registration for the earlier period.

---

---

Issues: Whether the assessee-firm was entitled to registration under section 26A for the period from January 1, 1953, to July 1, 1953, on the basis of the supplementary deed executed on July 2, 1953.

Analysis: Registration under section 26A was available only to a firm constituted under an instrument of partnership specifying the individual shares of the partners, and the partnership had to be carried on in accordance with an instrument operative during the relevant period. The recitals and operative terms of the supplementary deed showed that the new constitution of the firm came into existence only on July 2, 1953, and not retrospectively from January 1, 1953. The attempt to rely on alleged earlier documents was rejected on the material before the authorities, and the rules did not permit the partners to give the partnership a fictional anterior commencement in the absence of proof of an earlier concluded agreement.

Conclusion: The assessee was not entitled to registration for the period January 1, 1953, to July 1, 1953, and the question was answered in the negative.

Ratio Decidendi: For registration under section 26A, the firm must be shown to have been constituted and carried on in accordance with an operative partnership instrument during the relevant period, and the partnership cannot be treated as existing from a date anterior to the actual concluded agreement merely by a retrospective recital in the deed.

---