Judgment

GROVER, J. - These three appeals are by certificate from a common judgment of the Calcutta High Court answering the following question referred to it by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal in the negative and against the assessee:

"Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the cloth business of the assessee and its business in the General Section constituted the same business within the meaning of S. 24(2) of the Indian Income-tax Act as it stood at the material time".

According to the statement of the case the assessee is a private limited company owning shares and securities and also doing business. The relevant assessment years are 1955-56, 1956-57, 1957-58, the corresponding accounting years being the calendar years 1954, 1955 and 1956. In the assessment for the years 1953-54 and 1954-55 losses amounting to Rs. 2,13,898/and Rs. 46,050/- respectively were determined for the purposes of Section 24(2) of the Income-tax Act, 1922, hereafter called the "Act". In the first year a loss of Rs. 2,08,686/- arose in cloth business whereas the balance of the loss occurred in the General section and the manure section . In the second year a loss of Rs. 46,050/occurred m