Judgment -Chagla, C.J.

1. On a very few and short facts a very interesting question arises for our decision on this reference. The assessee went to East Africa in 1931. He had his lather and brothers living in Bombay in the Kaira District. The father was possessed of immoveable properties and in 1942 he made a gift of four of his houses to each one of his four sons including, the assessee; and the evidence on the record shows that, as the lather had no house left to stay in and as there was no likelihood of the assessee coming to India as he had his business in Africa to look after, he permitted the father to continue to stay in the house which, had been gifted to him. The assessees wife-came to India with her four children on 17th of April 1946 and she lived in this house which was gifted to her husband and in which her father-in-law was staying. She lived in India, up to 14th of February 1947 and in the mean-while one of her sons got married on 23rd of May 1946. The assessee himself came to India on 3rd of September 1946 and stayed in this house up to 31st of December 1946. On these facts the Taxing Department contended that for the assessment year 1947-48 the assessee was a resid

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