HAJI JIWANKHAN Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS revision under Section 25 of the Provincial Small Cause Courts Act is by the Plaintiff against the decree, dated, 10 -1 -1961, passed by Shri P. B. Thakre, Additional District Judge, Khandwa, empowered under Section 9 of the M. P. Civil Courts Act. 1958, in Small Cause Suit No. 333 of 1960, dismissing the Plaintiff's claim for damages on account of the injury to the goods while in transit.

(2.) THE undisputed facts in the present case are that the Plaintiff -Petitioner was a consignee in respect of a consignment consisting of 154 bundles of S. W. Pipes booked from Jabalpur to Khandwa under Railway receipt No 156 dated 25 -8 -1959. Even according to the Plaintiff, the bundles consisting of cement pipes were packed in grass without any crates or covers in order to protect the brittle goods. The consignment was booked on the Railway risk.

(3.) AT this stage, it is pertinent to note that the Railway receipt, dated, 25 -8 -1954 (Ex. P -4) contained an endorsement to the effect that packing conditions were not complied. It is not known whether the Railway administration took any writing from the Petitioner in the forwarding note about the defective packing as required by Section 74 -A of the Railways Act. However, this fact was admitted by the Petitioner himself in the plaint that the packing had been done in grass that no crates had been used as required by packing condition No. 20 contained in the Goods Tariff Part I pertaining to general rules for acceptance, carriage and delivery of goods.