Adventure in the nature of trade can arise from a solitary transaction where profit motive is proved and contrary purpose is absent.

A solitary purchase and resale outside the assessee's regular business line can still amount to an adventure in the nature of trade where surrounding circumstances show a sole profit-making intention. Here, the silver bars were bought in a rising market, were non-productive assets, and no cogent alternative motive for the transaction was established. The fact that the funds could have been used to reduce interest liability did not displace the inference that the purchase was made with an expectation of resale profit. The resale surplus was therefore treated as taxable income arising from a trading transaction, not as capital accretion.

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Issues: Whether the purchase and sale of silver bars by the assessee constituted an adventure in the nature of trade and the resulting surplus was taxable income.

Analysis: The transaction was outside the assessee's regular line of business and was a solitary purchase and sale, but those circumstances were not decisive by themselves. The silver was bought when the market was rising, the commodity was non-productive, and no cogent alternative motive for the purchase was established. The surrounding facts showed that the money could have been used to reduce interest liability, yet it was invested in silver with the expectation of resale profit. A solitary transaction outside the normal business line can still amount to a trading adventure when entered into solely for profit, and the presumption arising from those circumstances was not displaced.

Conclusion: The purchase and sale of silver bars was an adventure in the nature of trade, and the question was answered in the affirmative against the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The sum realised on resale was held to be taxable income arising from a trading transaction rather than capital accretion.

Ratio Decidendi: A solitary transaction outside the normal business line constitutes an adventure in the nature of trade when the surrounding circumstances show a sole profit-making intention and no cogent contrary motive is proved.

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