Doctrine of Double Capacity and Double Personality

Q.  Explain the doctrine of double capacity and double personality. [20 marks - 2018]

Doctrine of Double Capacity and Double Personality

Capacity

Capacity means the rights and powers of a person by virtue of his being at a particular position. A person can have many capacities. If a person is a judge he has the capacity of a judge as well as the capacity of a citizen at the same time. But the double capacity does not mean double personality. His legal personality is only one.

Legal Person

A legal person is a non-human being to which law attributes personality. It includes an object, a mass of property, an institution, a group of human beings etc. Law treats them as right and duty bearing units or entities like a natural person. 

Legal personality is a single entity over and above the group of the individuals or the thing which though represents the group of the individuals or the thing, is distinct from them. There is a clear distinction between the individuals who compose the group (corporation); the group or corporation as a legal person. A company might go bankrupt but the shareholders would retain their millions.

Legal Personality

Legal personality is attained when law recognizes a single entity over and above the group of the individuals or the thing which though represents the group of the individuals or the thing, is distinct from them. There is a clear distinction between the individuals who compose the group (corporation) and the group or corporation as a legal person. A company (it is a legal person) might go bankrupt but the shareholders would retain their millions.

About legal person, the Supreme Court in the case of Som Prakash Rekhi v. Union Of India, (1981) SCC 449 has expressed the view that a legal person is any entity other than a human being to which the law attributes personality;