Q.Can a partnership firm become a member of a company? Give reasons for your answer.

The answer turns on a basic feature of partnership law, not on anything special in the Companies Act, 2013 itself.

A partnership firm cannot become a member of a company, and the reason lies outside the Companies Act, 2013 altogether, in the Indian Partnership Act, 1932. A firm is merely a collective name for its partners; it has no legal personality separate from them, unlike a company, which is a distinct legal person capable of owning property and suing or being sued in its own name.

Membership of a company, by Section 2(55), requires a person — in law, either a natural person or a legal (juristic) person such as a company — to be entered in the register of members. Since a partnership firm is neither, the register cannot show 'ABC & Co.' as a member; there is no legal entity there to register. …

Students sometimes wrongly assume a firm can be a member 'like a company', confusing a registered partnership with a body corporate, and forget to mention the p …