Residential status turns on actual physical presence; late-evening arrival did not count as a full day of stay.

Physical presence in India must be counted on the basis of actual stay, and a broken period of a few hours cannot be treated as a full day for residential-status computation. On the passport entries, immigration stamp and flight schedule, the assessee's arrival on 25/10/2008 was in the late evening, so that date was not includible as a complete day in the stay count. The assessee was therefore correctly treated as a non-resident for tax purposes, and the Revenue's challenge failed.

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Issues: Whether the date of arrival on 25/10/2008 was to be counted as a full day for determining the assessee's residential status and, consequently, whether the assessee was to be treated as a resident or non-resident for tax purposes.

Analysis: The authorities re-examined the passport entries, immigration stamp, and flight schedule. On the material produced, the assessee's arrival in India on 25/10/2008 was in the late evening, so his presence in India on that date was only for a few hours. The computation of stay required the broken period to be examined on the basis of actual physical presence, and a part of a day could not be treated as a complete day when determining the number of days stayed in India.

Conclusion: The date 25/10/2008 was not includible as a complete day in the count of stay in India, and the assessee was correctly treated as a non-resident. The Revenue's challenge failed.

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