V. RAMASWAMI, J.

1. These two references (Income-tax Reference No. 51 of 1978 and Income-tax Reference No. 168 of 1980) under section 256(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, relate to the assessment years 1974-75 and 1975-76, respectively. In the first reference, the following two questions of law have been referred by the Tribunal :

"1. Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was right in law in holding that the word income used in the penultimate line of the second proviso to section 23(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, means annual letting value ?"

"2. If the answer to the above question is in the affirmative, whether the Tribunal was right in law in allowing loss which exceeded the annual letting value from the house property by Rs. 2,089 after allowing deduction of Rs. 1,200 under section 23(1) of the Act ?"

2. In the reference relating to the assessment year 1975-76, one compendious question has been referred through the point involved in the same and that question reads as follows :

"Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal erred in law in allowing a loss of Rs. 1,000 representing loss from a newly constructe