Partners of a firm, the status of a partner qua the firm with reference to the provisions of the Partnership Act, the concept of 'employer' and 'employee' and the importance of the definition of 'wages' as also various Indian and foreign decisions are clearly indicative of the principle that a partner who belongs to the class of employer cannot rank as employee because he also works for wages for the partnership. In common parlance the status of a partner qua the firm is thus different from em-ployees working under the firm. It may be that a partner is being paid some remuneration for any special attention which he devotes but that would not involve any change of status and bring him within the definition of employee. In a partnership firm, which is not a legal entity, each partner acts as an agent of the other. The position of a partner qua the firm is thus not that of a master and a servant or employer and employee which concept involves an element of subordination but that of equality. The partnership business belongs to the partners and each one of them is an owner thereof, Regional Director, Employees' State Insurance Corporation v. Ramanuja Match Industries, AIR 1985 SC 278: (1985) 1 SCC 218 (280): (1985) SCR 119.
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