UNION OF INDIA Vs. JASHAN MAL AND CO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This judgment would dispose of C.R. 60/72, C.R. 04/72 and S.A.O. 30/73, which raise a common question as to the circumstances in which a consignee may sue the Railways for compensation on account of loss and/or damage to the goods, while in transit.

(2.) C.R. 60/72 arises out of a suit filed by the respondents, M/s. Jashan Mal & Co., fruit and vegetable Merchants, Subzimandi, Delhi for compensation on account of damage caused to a consignment of mangoes booked from Vizianagaram Station to New Delhi over the Northern Railway. The plaintiff was the consignee mentioned in the railway receipt. The suit was resisted on behalf of the Union, inter alia, on the ground that the plainitiff, though a firm of commission agents and a consignee mentioned in the receipt, was not the owner of the goods and could not sue. The suit was decreed by the Judge Small Cause Court, Delhi. On the question of locus standi, the trial Court held, relying on the case of Jalan and. Sons, Ltd. AIR 1949 EP 190(1) and the case of Ghamandi Lal Naneh Mal, R.F.A. 18-D/1958 decided on March 1, 1967(2) that the plaintiff "being a consignee can bring this suit for damages against Union of India". Aggrieved by the decree, the Union of India has brought up the matter on a revision.

(3.) C.R. 64/72 arises out of a suit filed by M/s. B. Prahlad & Company, fruit and vegetable merchants, Subzimandi, Delhi for compensalion in identical circumstances and the plea on behalf of the Union as to the locus standi of the plaintiff was repelled for the reasons that prevailed in the above suit. The judgment and decree of the trial Court is challenged by the Union in revision.