Partnership firm: difference between dissolution and retirement

There is a clear distinction between ‘retirement of a partner’ and‘dissolution of a partnership firm’.

On retirement of the partner, there constituted firm continues and the retiring partner is to be paid his dues in terms of Section 37 of the Partnership Act. In case of dissolution, accounts have to be settled and distributed as per the mode prescribed in Section 48 of the Partnership Act. When the partners agree to dissolve a partnership, it is a case of dissolution and not retirement

[See – Pamuru Vishnu Vinodh Reddy v.Chillakuru Chandrasekhara Reddy, (2003) 3 SCC445].

In the present case, there being only two partners, the partnership firm could not have continued to carry on business as the firm. A partnership firm must have at least two partners. When there are only two partners and one has agreed to retire, then the retirement amounts to dissolution of the firm. Continue reading “Partnership firm: difference between dissolution and retirement” →

Legal profession is not a commercial activity

Whether the legal profession is a commercial activity or is it a trade or business?

Argument in affirmative:

When a lawyer has his office-cum-residence in particular premises the domestic rate is applicable. Where however only the chamber is functioning, clearly commercial activities are being carried out and therefore commercial rate was rightly applied. According to him, the two categories of consumers have to be classified as domestic consumers and non domestic consumers. Those who are not domestic consumers fall to the second category and merely because for the sake of convenience the description has been given as “commercial” it does not make a difference. When one is not a domestic consumer, as a natural consequence the rate applicable to the other category has to be charged.

Deliberations:

The word ‘commerce’ is a derivative of the word ‘commercial’. The word ‘commercial’ originates from the word ‘commerce’ which has been defined in Black’s Law Dictionary- Sixth Edition as under:

Commerce.-The exchange of goods, productions, or property of any kind, the buying, selling, and exchanging of articles. Anderson v. Humble Oil and Refining Co.226 Ga.252, 174 S.E.2d 415.

The expression ‘commerce’ or ‘commercial’ necessarily has a concept of a trading activity. Trading activity may involve any kind of activity, be it a transport or supply of goods. Generic term for most all aspects is buying and selling. But in legal profession, there is no such kind of buying or selling nor any trading of any kind whatsoever. Therefore, to compare legal profession with that of trade and business is far from correct approach and it will totally be misplaced. Continue reading “Legal profession is not a commercial activity” →

Urdu terms used in land revenue records in India

Revenue Vocabulary:

Revenue records of agricultural lands were first formalized during the Mughal rule under the King Akbar. His revenue minister Raja Man Singh is said to have created the system of accounting of agricultural land in India and till date the same system of book keeping of agricultural records is maintained. While the most records have switched to writing in Hindi but the record keepers still use Urdu words to describe various facts. These are the frequent words and phrases used in the Revenue records:

राजस्व भाषा:

1 आबादी देह→ गॉंव का बसा हुआ क्षेत्र ।

2 मौजा→ ग्राम Continue reading “Urdu terms used in land revenue records in India” →

Changes in meaning of words and phrases.

Meaning changes with time:

Change in meaning of words with change in setting and passage of time.

A phrase begins life as a literary expression; its felicity leads to its lazy repetition; and repetition soon establishes it as a legal formula, undiscriminatingly used to express different and sometimes contradictory ideas.

The phrase ‘assumption of risk’ is an excellent illustration of the extent to which uncritical use of words bedevils the law.

Thus, in the setting of one set of circumstances, ‘assumption of risk’ has been used as a shorthand way of saying that although an employer may have violated the duty of care which he owed his employee, he could nevertheless escape liability for damages resulting from his negligence if the employee, by accepting or continuing in the employment with ‘notice’ of such negligence, ‘assumed the risk’. In such situations ‘assumption of risk’ is a defense which enables a negligent employer to defeat recovery against him. In the setting of a totally different set of circumstances, ‘assumption of risk’ has a totally different meaning. Industrial enterprise entails, for all those engaged in it, certain hazards to life and limb which no amount of care on the part of the employer can avoid. In denying recovery to an employee injured as a result of exposure to such a hazard, where the employer has in no sense been negligent or derelict in the duty owed to his employees, courts have often said that the employee ‘assumed the risk.’ Here the phrase ‘assumption of risk’ is used simply to convey the idea that the employer was not at fault and therefore not liable.

[Source: TILLER vs. ATLANTIC COAST LINE R. CO., 318 U.S. 54: 63 S.Ct. 444: 87 L.Ed. 610 (per Frankfurter J.)]

A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged, it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used.

Category: Words