ORDER :- This is a reference under S.66(1) of the Indian Income-tax Act and the question referred to us for opinion is as follows :

"Whether there was material to come to the conclusion that the money with which the bus was purchased was advanced to the wife by the husband so as to attract the operation of the section 16(3) (a) (iii) of the Income-tax Act?"

2. The assessee carries on business in Haldwani and Naini Tal. There was, however, a bus no.104 U.S.R. registered in the name of the assessees wife. The income from this bus amounting to Rs.2520/- during the year in question was paid to the wife of the assessee by the Kumaon Motors Union who were running the bus. The Income-tax Officer claimed that the bus belonged to the assessee and his wife was merely a benamidar for him. He treated the income from the bus as the income of the assessee. The assessee, however, denied that the bus belonged to him and asserted that the bus belonged to his wife who had purchased it out of the money which she had received from her father at the time of his death in 1934.

The assessee, however, informed the Income-tax Officer that he could not produce any evidence to prove how and when that money came

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