Juristic Personality

Juristic personality is the legal status by which law treats a non-human entity as a person for specified purposes. Unlike a natural person, a juristic person exists in the eyes of law and can hold rights and duties only within the scope recognized by legislation or judicial doctrine. It ordinarily acts through human representatives.

Creation and recognition

Juristic personality may arise through incorporation under a statute or through judicial recognition of an entity as capable of holding legal rights and duties. Under Section 3(42) of the General Clauses Act, 1897, “person” includes a company, association or body of individuals, whether incorporated or not, unless the statutory context requires otherwise.

• A corporation has a legal identity distinct from its members.
• Courts have recognized a Hindu deity or idol as a juristic person capable of holding dedicated property and being represented by a human manager.

Legal consequences and limits

A juristic person may own property, enter contracts, sue or be sued, and incur civil or statutory liabilities. Because it lacks a physical will, it acts through directors, officers, trustees, managers or other authorized natural persons.

• Its rights and liabilities depend on the law creating or recognizing it and on the context of the relevant statute.
• It does not automatically possess every right available to a natural person; only rights compatible with its legal character can apply.

Relevance to intellectual property

Authorship, ownership and juristic personality are separate questions. The Copyright Act determines who is the author and first owner, while copyright may subsequently vest in a juristic person through statutory first-ownership rules or assignment.

• Under Section 2(d)(vi) of the Copyright Act, 1957, the author of a computer-generated literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work is the person who causes the work to be created.
• A machine or software system does not acquire juristic personality merely by producing an output; such status must be conferred or recognized by law.