Coparcenary disruption does not defeat firm registration where partnership rights arise from contract and statutory requirements are met.

A partnership firm constituted under an instrument specifying the partners' shares remained entitled to registration where one partner described himself as karta of a Hindu undivided family. The disruption of the coparcenary by partition affected only the internal rights of the family members inter se and did not alter the firm's contractual constitution or dissolve the partnership. The partition decree merely converted the family members' interest in the partnership share into tenancy in common. On that basis, the firm satisfied the statutory requirements for registration, and the issue was answered in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether the firm was entitled to registration under Section 26A of the Income-tax Act, 1922, where one partner was the karta of a Hindu undivided family and a subsequent partition decree had disrupted the family coparcenary.

Analysis: Section 26A required a firm constituted under an instrument of partnership specifying the individual shares of the partners, together with a proper application in the prescribed form. The fact that one partner described himself as karta of a Hindu undivided family did not alter the constitution of the firm, because the family members were not partners in the firm and had no contractual relation with the stranger partner. A disruption of the coparcenary only changed the internal rights of the family members inter se. It did not dissolve the partnership or affect the karta's status as a partner in the firm. The partition decree merely converted the family members' interest in the partnership share into tenancy in common.

Conclusion: The firm remained registrable under Section 26A, and the question was answered in the affirmative in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Disruption of a Hindu coparcenary does not, by itself, affect a partnership constituted by contract under an instrument specifying the partners' shares, and such a firm remains entitled to registration if the statutory requirements are otherwise satisfied.

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