According to Section 49 of the Act, how should the property of the firm be utilized when both firm debts and private debts of a partner exist?

Firm debts should be paid first, followed by the private debts of the partner.

The correct answer is option 2- Firm debts should be paid first, followed by the private debts of the partner.

Where both the debts of the firm and private debts of a partner co-exist, the following rules, as stated in Section 49 of the Act, shall apply.

(a) The property of the firm shall be applied first in the payment of debts of the firm and then the surplus, if any, shall be divided among the partners as per their claims, which can be utilised for payment of their private liabilities.

(b) The private property of any partner shall be applied first in payment of his private debts and the surplus, if any, may be utilised for payment of the firm’s debts, in case the firm’s liabilities exceed the firm’s assets. It may be noted that the private property of the partner does not include the personal properties of his wife and children. Thus, if the assets of the firm are not adequate enough to pay off firm’s liabilities, the partners have to contribute out of their net private assets (private assets minus private liabilities)