UNION OF INDIA AND Vs. MHANUMAN DAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the Union of India and the Agent and General Manager of M. & S. M. Railway, Madras, against the judgment and decree of the Subordinate Judge, Bangalore, granting a decree against them in respect of two bundles of goods which had been entrusted to the railway authorities at Bombay (Victoria Terminus) for transport by rail to Yeshwanthpur near Bangalore City in May 1948.

(2.) The main and practically the only defence of the defendant-railway was that the plaintiff had failed to make a declaration as regards the contents of the two bundles in dispute as required by Section 75, Indian Railways Act, 1890 (which corresponds to Section 59, Mysore Railways Act) and that as those bundles contained goods worth more than Rs. 300/-, the plaintiff could not recover their value. That defence has been rejected by the Subordinate Judge.

(3.) Section 75 of the Indian Railways Act provides that