Technical defect in partnership deed filing cannot defeat firm registration where genuineness remains to be examined.

A technical omission in filing the partnership deed with Form No. 11 did not, by itself, justify of registration under the Income-tax Act where the deed had already been executed, existed at the relevant time and was produced for examination. The Tribunal treated the defect as procedural rather than substantive and emphasised that the real issue was the genuineness of the firm. It upheld the direction to reconsider the assessee's status after examining genuineness, and the Department's objection based on the filing defect failed.

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Issues: Whether the assessee firm was entitled to registration under Section 185 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 despite the omission or defect in filing the partnership deed with Form No. 11, and whether the defect was merely technical so as to justify a direction to reconsider the firm's status after examining its genuineness.

Analysis: The Department's objection rested on the absence of a proper record showing that the original partnership deed and a true copy were filed along with the application. The material before the Tribunal showed that the partnership deed had been executed earlier, existed at the relevant time, and had in fact been produced for examination. The defect, if any, was treated as procedural rather than substantive, and the Tribunal considered that the question should turn on the genuineness of the firm rather than on a purely technical omission.

Conclusion: The Tribunal upheld the AAC's direction to reconsider the assessee's status after examining the genuineness of the firm and held that the technical defect did not warrant refusal of relief; the Department's appeal failed.

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