- (1.) THE substantial question that now falls for determination on this reference is whether the assessee, a Ceylon national, was a "resident" in this country in the previous financial year relevant to the assessment year 1942-43. For a due consideration of that question it is necessary to refer to certain events that took place during that period.
(2.) THE assessee had, from the time of his father, a business as ship-chandlers of rangoon. Japan declared war against Burma on 9-12-1941. A week later, the assessee remitted a sum of Rs. 15000 to his brother-in-law, in Ceylon to purchase a house for him, evidently with an intention to occupy it in case he were obliged to leave for his home country. But the house was never purchased. The war scare became greater during the month of January 1942 in Rangoon. The assessee sent his wife and children to Ceylon in that month. After arrival at Jaffna, the children were admitted in the school there. The assessee sent to his wife during the month of January and February 1942 a sum of Rs. 61,300. She deposited that sum, together with other sums that she had brought wit her, in the Chartered Bank at colombo. During the same months, the assessee also remitted a sum of Rs. 36500 to the Chartered Bank of Calcutta for an account to be opened in his name.
(3.) CIVILIAN, evacuation of Rangoon was ordered by the Military Authority on 22-21942, and the assessee left the place on the same day to Calcutta. While he left rangoon, his intention was undoubtedly to go to Ceylon, for he had put up a board in front of his house in Rangoon to that effect that he was leaving for his "sweet home in Jaffna. ";