Das, J.

1. These are five miscellaneous judicial cases in which this Court required the Appellate Tribunal to state a case on the following two questions of law:

(1) Whether in the circumstances of the case there is material to support the finding of the Appellate Tribunal that the assessee was a dealer in shares and securities with respect to each of the accounts and, therefore, liable to be taxed.

(2) Whether, having regard to the findings of the Appellate Tribunal in respect of 1941-42 assessment, it was open to the Appellate Tribunal in the present cases to hold that the profits and the transactions of sale and purchase of shares and securities amounted to profits of business and so liable to be taxed.

2. The relevant facts are these. The assessee is a zamindar, being the brother of the present Maharajadhiraj of Darbhanga. He owns and possesses a big zamindari property, known as the Rajnagar estate, under a maintenance grant. The assessee had been purchasing shares and securities from the Fasli year 1336 onwards (corresponding to the assessment year 1930-31). In their statement of the case, the Appellate Tribunal has divided the assessment for the years 1930-31 to 1948-