Law of Partnerships (Indian Partnership Act 1932)

PREFACEFrom ancient ages, the sole proprietorship was the most popular form of business organisation. The dilating scales and augmenting territories of business brought forth the combination of more than one individual into partnering. Partnership facilitated pooling of resources and efforts and gained prevalence over the sole proprietorship. Law of partnerships emerged at such point of time and has now gained the status of one of the very old mercantile laws.
Partnership is, in fact, a relation which subsists between persons carrying on business in common with a view of profit. As an economic form, the partnership is significant, even after transformation of partnerships into limited companies in the last quarter of 19th Century. When there is relationship of partnering, there is needed a code to administer the relationship. Law of partnership is, therefore, a necessary code for regulation of relations between the partners.
In India, the law of partnership is contained in the Indian Partnership Act, 1932, which was enacted to define and amend the law relating to partnerships. Prior to the passing of the present Act in 1932, law relating to partnerships was contained in Chapter XI (Sections 239 to 266) of the Indian Contract Act, 1872. Indian Partnership Act is mainly based on the English Partnership Act, 1890 and practically codifies the Indian law of partnership.
Over the period of nearly 75 years, the law of partnership has developed and is fairly enriched with the judicial precedents and pronouncements, though it is cumbersome to grasp from the thick volumes on Partnership Act.iv  Law of PartnershipsIn order to make this law simple and easily understandable, an effort is made in the present book. The author feels that the law of partnerships so simplified shall make it 'easy to understand' for the readers and the persons to the profession of law.
Case laws, important to the understanding of the code, are incorporated at the appropriate places, though restraint has been kept so that the book is not unnecessarily bulky. The author feels that the readers will find the book useful and looks forward to receive with pleasure any comments and suggestion from the readers towards improving this book further.2018  Dr. Sanjeev Kumar