Judgment :- THANIKKACHALAM J. At the instance of the Department, the Tribunal referred the following three questions for the opinion of this court under section 256(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 "(1) Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Appellate Tribunal was right in deleting the inclusion of Rs, 51, 88, 655 being interest, commitment charges and guarantee commission on accrual basis in the assessment year 1976-77 ? (2) Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Appellate Tribunal was right in deleting the inclusion of Rs. 1, 21, 312 being the interest accrued on the amounts due on which the assessee had obtained court decree for recovery ? (3) Whether the Appellate Tribunal's view that the method of accounting followed by the assessee in crediting the interest in the suspense account with reference to sticky loans could be accepted is sustainable in law ?" * The assessee is a public limited company. For the assessment year 1976-77, corresponding to the previous year ended on March 31, 1976, the assessee had not included in the total income interest on suspense account of Rs. 51, 64, 383, guarantee commission of Rs. 12, 627 and commitment charges of Rs. 11, 645 on the ground that there was no chance of realisation of these amounts, the debtors being chronic defaulters The Income-tax Officer added back these amounts on the ground that these amounts should be treated as income accrued to the assessee as the assessee was following the mercantile method of accounting. On appeal, the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals) deleted the additions following the decision of the Appellate Tribunal dated July 31, 1978, in I. T. A. Nos. 1824 and 1825/(Madras) of 1976-77 for the assessment years 1972-73 and 1973-74 as well as dated January 31, 1979, in I. T. A. No. 2472/ (Madras) of 1977-78 for the assessment year 1974-75 holding that such income cannot be included in the total income in view of the circular of the Central Board of Direct Taxes dated April 16, 1973. The assessee also had excluded accrued interest on two accounts for which the assessee had obtained court decree for recovery. The assessee also had excluded accrued interest on two accounts for which the assessee had obtained court decree for recovery. Since the question whether such interest could be treated as recoverable or not had been restored to the Income-tax Officer for the earlier assessment years, the similar question was restored to the Income-tax Officer for this assessment year alsoAll these three questions in the case of the same assessee came up for consideration before this court in T. C. Nos. 319, 688 and 689 of 1982 (CIT v. Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation Ltd. (No. 1) for the earlier assessment years. In the abovesaid tax cases, by a judgment dated November 10, 1994, this court following the judg ment of the Supreme Court in the case of State Bank of Travancore v. CIT held that interest accrued on sticky loan where the assessee followed the mercantile system of accounting is includible in the total income of the assessee for assessment purpose. The taxability of interest, commitment charges and guarantee commission, came up for consideration before this court in T. C. Nos. 681 and 682 of 1982, for the assessment years 1972-73 and 1973-74 in the case of the same assessee wherein this court held that all these items are includible in the total income of the assessee. This was in accordance with the decision in CIT v. Annapurani Veerappan. Thus, all these three questions referred to in the present reference case, are squarely covered by the earlier decision of this court rendered in T. C. Nos. 319, 688 and 689 of 1982, dated November 10, 1994 (CIT v. Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation Ltd. (No. 1) in favour of the Department. In that view of the matter, we answer the questions referred to us in the negative and in favour of the Department. No costs