Judgment

VENKATARAMIAH, J.:- The short question which arises for consideration in this petition for special leave to appeal filed under Article 136 of the Constitution is whether it is open to the Income-tax Officer while computing the liability of an assessee to tax under the Income-tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) to include in the income of the assessee any amount calculated in accordance with Section 23 (2) of the Act in respect of a house in the occupation of the assessee for the purposes of his own residence. The petitioner who is an assessee under the Act contended before the High Court of Madhya Pradesh in a petition filed under Art. 226 of the Constitution that inclusion of any amount under, Section 23 (2) of the Act in his income was unconstitutional as there could be no income at all in such a case accruing to him in the true sense of that term, the liability that was sought to be imposed under the Act in respect of his residential house was, therefore, in its pith and substance a tax on building falling under Entry 49 of List II of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution and hence Parliament could not impose the said liability under a law made in exerc