(1.) -
(2.) THE following questions have been referred to us for our decision :
(3.) THE materials on record only show that the assessee purchased the lands in the year 1945 at a price far higher than what the income from them would induce an ordinary investor to go in for; that the assessee although he owned plantations has speculated in gold and silver two years before the purchase of Kichilipalayam lands. THEse alone cannot, in our opinion, lead to any inference that the assessee was engaged in a concern in the nature of trade. THE two circumstances could at best be regarded only as equivocal. THE burden of showing that the assessee purchased the lands with the intention of realising a profit by the sale of the same at a future time is on the department; they cannot be said to have discharged that burden by reason of existence of some equivocal circumstances alone. Whether the purchase of lands by the assessee in the absence of a business by him in that or allied line, amounts to an adventure in the nature of trade has to be decided on a consideration of all the facts so as to ascertain the intention with which the assessee made the purchase.