- (1.) In 1944, the appellant was a resident of Lahore. On October 14, 1944, he was assessed to income-tax by the Income-tax Officer, Lahore for the assessment year 1944-45 on an income of Rs. 49,047. As is well known in August 1947, India was partitioned and Lahore came to be included in the newly created Dominion of Pakistan and went out of India. After the partition, the appellant shifted to Delhi and was residing there at all material times.
(2.) The appellant held shares in a company called Indra Singh and Sons Ltd. which had its office at Calcutta. The other shares in that Company were held by Indra Singh and Ajaib Singh. The holding of all the shareholders were equal. An annual general meeting of this company was held on April 17, 1943, in which the accounts for year ending March 31, 1942, were placed for consideration. The accounts were passed at the meeting but no dividend was declared though the accounts disclosed large profits.
(3.) On June 11, 1947, an Income-tax Officer of Calcutta passed an order under S. 23A of the Income-tax Act that Rs. 14,23,110 being the undistributed portion of the assessable income of the company for the year ending March 31, 1942, after the deductions provided in the section, be deemed to have been distributed as dividend among the three shareholders on the date of the general meeting, that is, April 17, 1943. As a result of this order a sum of Rs. 4,74,370 being his share of the amount directed to be distributed, had under the section, to be included in the income of the appellant for the assessment year 1944-45. The validity of this order was never challenged.;