Partnership deed and legal representative rights: renewal application signed by the widow in her own capacity was valid.

A partnership deed allowing a deceased partner's legal representative to continue in the firm validated the widow's renewal application for registration when she signed in her own capacity as a partner. The court held that the firm was not dissolved by the partner's death, and the renewal application in Form No. 8 was not defective merely because it was signed after the death. The assessment was treated as relating to the firm for the whole year, so the renewal remained valid and the Commissioner's revision failed.

---

---

Issues: Whether the renewal of registration of the firm was invalid because the application in Form No. 8 was signed by the deceased partner's widow after his death, and whether the firm continued without dissolution on the death of a partner.

Analysis: On the death of a partner, the partnership deed entitled the deceased partner's representative to step into the deceased partner's place with the same rights and liabilities. The widow, having become a partner in that capacity, signed the renewal application personally as a partner and not on behalf of the deceased. The firm was not dissolved on the partner's death, and the assessment related to the income of the firm for the whole year. There was therefore no legal defect in the renewal application or the renewal granted on that basis.

Conclusion: The renewal of registration was valid and the Commissioner's revision failed.

Final Conclusion: The assessment order stood restored and the Commissioner's order setting aside the renewal and assessment was quashed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a partnership deed permits the legal representative of a deceased partner to continue as a partner, a renewal application signed by that representative in her own capacity is valid and the firm is not rendered invalid or dissolved merely because one partner has died.

---