Partnership deed registration fails where a minor is made a partner and partners' shares are left undefined.

On a proper construction of the partnership deed, the Calcutta HC held that the assessee-firm was not entitled to registration under section 26A of the Income-tax Act, 1922. Read with the partition arrangement, the instrument showed severance of the earlier joint family status and did not establish any reunion between the father and the minor son. The recital of a joint four annas share did not define the respective shares of the father and the minor, and the deed effectively treated the minor as a partner sharing profits and losses. As the shares were not specifically defined and a minor was made a partner, registration was refused.

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Issues: Whether, on a proper construction of the partnership deed, the assessee-firm was entitled to registration under section 26A of the Income-tax Act, 1922.

Analysis: The deed, read with the partition arrangement, showed a severance of the earlier joint family status and did not establish any reunion between the father and the minor son. The recital that the father was entitled jointly with his minor son to a four annas share did not specify the respective shares of the father and the minor. On the true construction of the instrument, the minor was treated as a partner sharing in profits and losses, which made the deed incapable of registration. The arrangement could not be rewritten so as to treat the fathers as partners only in a representative capacity of truncated Hindu families.

Conclusion: The assessee-firm was not entitled to registration; the question was answered in the negative and the decision was against the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: A partnership deed is not registrable under section 26A where, on its true construction, a minor is made a partner or the respective shares of the partners are not specifically defined.

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