24. Liability of partnership firms

(1) Where any firm is liable to pay any tax or other amount under the Act, the firm and each of the partners of the firm shall be jointly and severally liable for such payment.

(2) Where any business carried on by a firm or a Hindu Undivided Family or an Association has been discontinued or dissolved, the authority prescribed shall make an assessment on the taxable turnover and determine the tax payable as if no such discontinuance or dissolution had taken place and all the provisions of the Act including provisions relating to levy of penalty or any other amount payable under any of the provisions of the Act shall apply, to such assessment.

(3) Every person who was at the time of such discontinuance or dissolution, a partner of the firm, or a member of such Hindu Undivided Family or Association and the legal representative of any such person who is deceased, shall be jointly and severally liable for the amount of tax, penalty or any other amount payable, and all the provisions of the Act shall apply to any such assessment or levy of penalty or any other amount.

(4) Where such discontinuance or dissolution takes place after any proceedings in respect of any year have commenced, the proceedings may be continued against the VAT dealer or TOT dealer referred to in sub-section (2) from the stage at which such proceedings stood at the time of such discontinuance or dissolution and all the provisions of the Act shall apply accordingly.

(5) When any private company is wound up and any tax assessed on the company under the Act for any period, whether before or in the course of or after its liquidation, cannot be recovered, then every person who was a director of the private company at any time during the period for which the tax is due, shall be jointly and severally liable for the payment of such tax, unless he proves that the non-recovery cannot be attributed to any gross neglect, misfeasance or breach of duty on his part in relation to the affairs of the company.