Firm registration requires a valid partnership deed in the relevant year; a later curative deed cannot retroactively validate it.

Registration of a firm under the Income-tax Act, 1961 requires a valid partnership instrument in force during the relevant previous year, with the partners' individual shares specified and the application filed within the statutory time. A defect in the partnership deed cannot be cured by a later deed executed after the accounting year has ended, because section 185(2) permits correction of application defects only and does not validate a substantively invalid instrument. On those principles, a later curative deed could not operate retrospectively for the assessment year concerned, and registration for that year was refused.

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Issues: Whether the assessee-firm was entitled to registration for the assessment year 1962-63 under the Income-tax Act, 1961, when the partnership deed governing the relevant accounting year was invalid and the curative deed was executed only after the close of that year.

Analysis: Registration under section 184 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, is available only where the firm is evidenced by an instrument specifying the partners' individual shares, the application is made before the end of the previous year, and the original instrument accompanies the application. Section 185(2) enables the Income-tax Officer to call for correction of defects in the application, but that power does not extend to curing a basic invalidity in the partnership deed itself or to treating a deed executed after the relevant accounting year as operative for that year. As the business for assessment year 1962-63 related to the accounting year ending 31 December 1961, the partnership deed in force during that year remained the defective 1955 deed, and the later deed of 28 June 1962 could not validate the registration claim for the earlier year.

Conclusion: The assessee-firm was not entitled to registration for the assessment year 1962-63, and the refusal of registration was upheld.

Final Conclusion: Relief under the registration provisions cannot be granted unless the statutory conditions are satisfied with reference to the instrument operative during the relevant previous year.

Ratio Decidendi: A firm seeking registration under section 184 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 must satisfy the statutory requirements with reference to the partnership instrument in force during the relevant previous year; a later rectifying deed cannot cure a basic invalidity in the deed governing that year.

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