THE UNION OF INDIA (UOI), MINISTRY OF POSTS AND TELEGRAPHS, REPRESENTED BY THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF POSTS AND TELEGRAPHS Vs. SOUTH INDIA INSURANCE COMPANY AND ANR.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Since the facts are not in controversy, the only question that arises for consideration is, whether in the circumstances of the present case, the appellant is liable to pay to the respondents herein the value of the parcel. Section 6 of the Indian Post Office Act, 1898, hereinafter referred to as the Act, states:

(2.) The Government shall not incur any liability by reason of the loss, misdelivery or delay of or damage to, any postal article in course of transmission by post, except in so far as such liability may in express terms be undertaken by the Central Government as hereinafter provided; and no officer of the Post Office shall incur any liability by reason of any such loss, misdelivery, delay or damage, unless he has caused the same fraudulently or by his wilful act or default.Section 31 of the Act deals with the power of the Government to require insurance of postal articles and provides:

(3.) The Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare in what cases insurance shall be required, and direct that any postal article containing anything required to be insured, which has been posted without being insured, shall be returned to the sender or shall be delivered to the addressee, subject to the payment of such special fee as may be fixed by the notification: Provided that the levy of such special fee as aforesaid shall not impose any liability upon the Central Government in respect of the postal article. Once a postal article is insured as required under Section 31, under Section 33, the Government are liable to pay compensation and the conditions under which the liability arises and the extent of the liability are provided for in that section (section 33). In exercise of the powers conferred by the Act, the Government have framed the Indian Post Office Rules, 1,933 and Rule 50 states that the Director -General shall, from time to time, notify in the Post Office Guide the conditions in force for the transmission of Postal articles by the Foreign Post. Pursuant to this rule, the Director -General has issued a notification and the relevant notification, as far as the present case is concerned, is contained in paragraph 352 (1), of the Post Office Guide, 1965. That paragraph states: (1) The Post Office undertakes to pay compensation, subject to the conditions indicated in the subsequent paragraphs of this clause, for the loss of any parcel or damage to or abstraction of the contents of any parcel destined to or received from any foreign country except in the case of uninsured parcels for and from the following countries:British Overseas Territories....