Alfred Henry Lionel Leach, C.J.

1. This is a reference by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal Calcutta Bench, under Section 66 of the Indian Income Tax Act. The Tribunal has not accurately set out the facts, but these are not in dispute and they may be stated very shortly.

2. The assessee is joint with his three sons. In 1922, he started at Negamba in Ceylon a business in partnership with a stranger to the family. On the 7th May, 1924, he embarked on a cloth business in Colombo. Here he had no partner. In the month of July, 1924, his father gave him a sum of Rs. 25,000 and in the month of June of the following year a sum of Rs. 8, 221. The assessee was one of three brothers and each received the same amount. In the statement of the case it is said that the gift to the assessee in June, 1925, was a sum of Rs. 24,665. This was the amount which was divided by the father between his three sons. Another mistake in the statement of the facts made in the order of reference is that the assessee commenced his business in Colombo after the death of his father. His father died in 1934.

3. On the 26th May, 1938, a deed of partnership was executed by the assessee and his two elder sons who w