Order XXX CPC: Suits by or Against Firms and Persons Carrying on Business in Names Other Than Their Own

(1) Any two or more persons claiming or being liable as partners and carrying on business in India may sue or be sued in the name of the firm, if any, of which they were partners at the time when the cause of action accrued. A party may apply to the Court for a statement of the names and addresses of the persons who were partners at that time, to be furnished and verified as the Court directs.

(2) Where persons sue or are sued as partners in the name of their firm, a pleading or other document required by the Code to be signed, verified or certified by the plaintiff or defendant may be signed, verified or certified by any one of those persons.

(1) Where a suit is instituted by partners in the firm name, the plaintiffs or their pleader must, on a written demand by or on behalf of a defendant, declare in writing the names and places of residence of all persons constituting the firm on whose behalf the suit is instituted.

(2) If the plaintiffs or their pleader fail to comply with such demand, proceedings may, on application, be stayed on terms directed by the Court.

(3) Once the partners' names are declared, the suit proceeds as though they had been named as plaintiffs, while proceedings continue in the firm name and the disclosed partners are entered in the decree.

Where persons are sued as partners in the firm name, summons may be served on one or more partners, or at the principal place where the partnership business is carried on in India on a person who, at the time of service, has control or management of the partnership business, as the Court may direct.

Such service is good service on the firm whether all or any partners are within or outside India. If the partnership had been dissolved to the plaintiff's knowledge before institution of the suit, summons must be served on every person within India whom the plaintiff seeks to make liable.

(1) Where two or more persons may sue or be sued in the firm name and one of them dies, whether before institution or during pendency of the suit, it is not necessary to join the legal representative of the deceased as a party.

(2) This does not limit any right of the legal representative to apply to be made a party or to enforce a claim against the survivor or survivors.

Where summons issued to a firm is served under Rule 3, the person served must be informed in writing whether service is made on him as a partner, as a person having control or management of the partnership business, or in both capacities. In default of such notice, the person served is deemed to have been served as a partner.

Where persons are sued as partners in the firm name, they appear individually in their own names, but subsequent proceedings continue in the name of the firm.

Where summons is served under Rule 3 upon a person having control or management of the partnership business, that person need not enter an appearance unless he is a partner of the firm sued.

(1) A person served with summons as a partner under Rule 3 may appear under protest and deny that he was a partner at any material time.

(2) Before the date fixed for hearing and final disposal, either the plaintiff or the person appearing under protest may apply for determination of whether that person was a partner of the firm and liable as such.

(3) A finding that the person was a partner at the material time does not prevent that person from filing a defence disputing the liability of the firm in respect of the claim.

(4) If the Court finds that the person was not a partner and was not liable as such, the plaintiff may still serve the firm otherwise and proceed with the suit, but cannot later allege that person's liability as a partner in execution of a decree against the firm.

Order XXX applies to suits between a firm and one or more of its partners, and to suits between firms having one or more partners in common. Execution in such suits requires leave of the Court, which may direct accounts, inquiries and other steps considered just.

Any person carrying on business in a name or style other than his own name, or a Hindu undivided family carrying on business under any name, may be sued in that name or style as if it were a firm name. So far as the nature of the case permits, the rules of Order XXX apply accordingly.