TMI Blog1946 (2) TMI 9X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... British India. In each case the income taxed was of the previous year which was the Tamil year Pramathi ending 12th April 1940 for the Indian business and the financial year ending 31st March 1940 for the foreign business, the assessee's accounts in the two places having been made up to those dates respectively. There was no dispute that the family was resident in British India within the meaning of Section 4(1)(b ) read with Section 4-A of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922, as amended by the Income-tax (Amendment) Act, VII of 1939, The assessee, however, contended that the family was not ordinarily resident in British India within the meaning of the second proviso to Section 4(1) read with Section 4-B and that, accordingly, the inc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ness, (ii) that he was in British India for 731 days on the aggregate during the seven Tamil years preceding Pramathi, the year of account of the Indian business, and (iii) that he was in British India for 731 days on the aggregate during the seven t financial years preceding the financial year 1939-40 which was the year of account of the Ceylon business. It will thus be seen that if the seven years mentioned in clause (a) be taken as seven calendar years, the manager cannot be said to have been in British India during that period for more than two years, and the assessee's joint family would be entitled, under the second proviso to Section 4(1) as a person not ordinarily resident in British India, to claim the exclusion of the fore ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... essee, any other period of twelve months ending within such year if he has made up his accounts for such period. It was held that an assessee could not have two separate previous years for the purpose of income-tax ( Commissioner of Income-tax, Bombay v. Abubaker Abdul Rahman [1936] 4 ITR 233; ILR 60 Bom 679) but this view was superseded by the amending Act and it is now possible for an assessee to have a different previous year for each separate source of income [Section 2(11)]. Total income is the total amount of income, profits and gains referred to in sub-section (1) of Section 4 computed in the manner laid down in the Act [Section 2(15)]. Section 4(1) refers to four classes of income and provides for their assessment on a basis w ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rse, where that year also began from the 1st of January. Such a result is repugnant to the intendment of the provisions of Section 4-B (a) read with Section 4(1) under which the terminus ad quern is the commencement of the previous year . We find nothing in Section 50 of the Act to which reference was made in the course of the argument to support the interpretation contended for on behalf of the assessee. It was said that if the seven years mentioned in Section 4-B (a) were taken as referring to the period immediately preceding the year of account, it would give rise to the anomalous position of one and the same person being liable to assesiment as ressdent in respect of some of his sources of income and as not resident in respect ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... But this, in our opinion, is no reason for disregarding a construction to which the language of the provisions in question plainly points. And, after all, the construction contended for on behalf of the assessee, as we understand it, does not help to resolve the supposed anomaly as, even on such construction, an assessee may, in conceivable cases, have to be dealt with as resident and non resident in respect of his different sources of income. We are therefore of opinion that the expression seven years in Section 4-B of the Indian Income-tax Act should be taken as referring to the period of seven years of twelve calendar months each immediately preceding the commencement of the relevant previous year, and we answer the reference in th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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