Mulla The Indian Partnership Act by Justice GC Bharuka: A book review

3.1 LAW OF CONTRACT

Submitted by

Parikshit Shukla

UID: UG2018 - 62

B.A.L.LB. (Hons.) II Year-3rd Semester

Submitted to

Dr. Manish Yadav

(Assistant Professor of Law)

MAHARASHTRA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, NAGPUR

The Indian Partnership Act, 1932 was an act which was mainly based on the UK Partnership Act,
1890 is an act governing the laws relating to partnership in the India. When the book was
released almost immediately after the passing of the act, it contained of all the English case laws
which were needed for the understanding the import of statutory structure. But a lot of water has
been flown since then. There have been a plethora of cases decided on by the apex court and
high court of the country. Justice GC Bharuka, in the revised edition of the original book
authored by Sir Fredrick Pollock and Sir Dinshah Mulla has covered the area in which the book
lacked before in the starting editions of the book i.e. lack of Indian Cases.

The author in the preface states that the book is meant for practitioners and students both, but
while reading it was found out that although the easy language poured in the book helps to
maximize a students’ understanding, but ignoring the jurisprudential concepts have made the
book just a compilation of various laws regarding the Indian Partnership Act, 1932 and will
certainly help practitioners to apply case laws in practical situation and give authority to their
arguments.

The book is divided into eight big chapters and this categorizing of the chapter has been done in
such a way that the whole Partnership Act is covered in these 8 chapters. The chapter has been
bifurcated in the following ways -:

Chapter 1 is the preliminary section of the Indian Partnership Act, 1932 which deals with the
Short title, extent and commencement and definitions clause of the Indian Partnership Act. The
definition clause has been beautifully explained in the book and if one uses this book to
understand the definition clause of the statute then no other book is needed for the purpose.

Chapter 2 deals with the nature of partnership under which the major difference has been given
between Partnership, Partners, firm and firm name etc. This chapter extensively deals with the
concept and theory of profit sharing, trade associations and illegal partnership. The way in which
partnership has been defined seems ambiguous to a reader as various definitions has been taken
from. Then major focus has on been Association of persons and Joint Hindu Family Business.

Chapter 3-4 deals with the Relationship of partners to one another and Relationship of partners to
third parties. Chapter 4 is the longest and the most exhaustive chapter of the book and the
relationship of the partners to third parties has been discussed under various heads such as
Agency, Implied Authority, Authority in an Emergency, Liability of the firm for wrongful acts of
a partner. While reading this chapter, the use of case laws was realised as there can be various
kinds of situations under which the relationship of the partners to the third parties needs to be
assessed and from case laws the practical application is understood as the theory falls short to
explain the concept here.

In chapter 5, the incoming and outgoing of the partners has been discussed. As this is a part
where there are a lot of difficulties regarding goodwill and outgoing of an old partner, this book
does not explain the laws in a clear way and a need is felt to refer to other books.

In chapter 6-7, the dissolution and registration of the firm has been discussed which is a fairly
easy concept and has been dealt with utmost precision.

In order to review the book properly, the review has been divided into the merits and de-merits
which will systematically explain what this book has to offer and what does it lacks. The merits
and de-merits of the book are as follows-:

MERITS

 Language: The book has been written in a very plain and lucid language which will help
new law students in understanding the act properly. The words which are used in the
book are apt and convey what the author wants to. The advantage of having a book on
law written in such clear cut language is that even a layman can develop an
understanding of the provisions which is very rare in the law books.
For example, given below is a excerpt from the book on the status of partnership under
the tax laws, which will demonstrate how clear and simple the language of the book is-:
“The partners of the firm are distinct assessable entities, while the firm as such is a
separate distinct unit for the purpose of assessment. What that implies is that for the
purposes of assessment to tax, the income of partnership firm has to be assessed in the
hands of the firm as a single unit, the firm itself being treated as an assessable entity
separate and distinct from the partners constituting it.”
 In the above paragraph the judgement of the case CIT v. AW Figgis1 has been explained
with utmost precision.
 Student friendly: Apart from having easy language in the book, the book also is very
student friendly as it explains those parts which a lot of other books fails to explain. For
example : In the section 2 of the Indian Partnership Act, 1932 which is the definition
clause of the act, ‘act of firm’ has been defined in section 2(a) 2 and ‘business’ has been
defined in section 2(b)3 of the act. The definition of ‘act of firm’ has the word ‘mean’ in
it whereas the definition of ‘business’ has the word ‘includes’ in it. This difference has
been briefly explained in the book as follows -:
“While defining these words, the statute has employed the word ‘means’ and ‘includes’.
Wherever any word has been defined to ‘mean’ something it is restrictive and exhaustive.
If the word defined is declared to ‘include’ something the definition is extensive.”
This goes on to prove the above stated merit of the book.
 Case Laws: Cases which have been given in the book are extensive and also help the
students in examination to give authority to their answers, in every page it was found that
there are more than five case laws to refer to, in situation needed.

In order to review this book academically, it was important that a neutral approach be used
by the reviewer so a clearer picture could be presented. So, below is the list of demerits
which the reviewer has come across while reading this book.

 The book has not explained the jurisprudential aspect of the topics and is mainly focused
on the cases. In short the book is a compilation of the various case laws relating to the
Indian Partnership Act, 1932. If one is looking to understand the concept and
jurisprudential aspect then this book is to be ignored.
 When a student reads a book, what he aspects that he will grasp the concept of the laws,
but when a book has a plethora of cases which do not serve this purpose, the book seizes
to be of use to the students who have just started learning laws.

1
AIR 1953 SC 455
2
an “act of a firm” means any act or omission by all the partners, or by any partner or agent of the firm which gives
rise to a right enforceable by or against the firm
3
“business” includes every trade, occupation and profession.
Every book serves a purpose to someone, so it can’t be said that a book is not useful also no
book is perfect in this world, some books fair better in some areas whereas some fair better in
other areas. While looking at this book from the viewpoint of a student the book seems to be of
some help to students when we are searching for cases to give authority to the answers, this is a
go to book, but in understanding the concepts this book at some places will short fall to do so.