Malini Rao vs Hotel Dwaraka And Ors. on 2 December, 1993
Section 46 provides that "on the dissolution of a firm every partner or his representative is entitled, as against all the other partners or their representatives, to have the property of the firm applied in payment of the debts and liabilities of the firm, and to have the surplus distributed among the partners or their representatives according to their rights". This adumbrates the rights of the partners to have the business of the firm wound up after dissolution. This provision makes it clear that when a partnership is dissolved its partners are entitled to have the firm wound up. This right accrues the moment a firm is dissolved in any of the manners provided under the Indian Partnership Act, 1932. (See N. Kamalamba v. M. Ramaiah [1992] 2 APLJ 414). Therefore, I am of the view that where a firm is dissolved, a partner can approach this court only under clause (a) of sub-section (4) of section 583 and that clauses (b) and (c) can be invoked only in cases where the firm is subsisting and not dissolved. The question of rendering of accounts by the partners under section 50 read with clause (a) of section 16 arises in the winding up proceedings if entertained by the court and cannot give rise to a separate cause of action for the winding up of the firm under sub-section (4) of section 583 of the Act.