GAYATRI DEVI Vs. RAMESH CHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Salmond on Law of Torts, 15th Edn. at page 306 wrote "The maxim res ipsa loquitur applies whenever it is so improbable that such an accident would have happened without the negligence of the defendant that a reasonable jury could find without further evidence that it was so caused." In Halsbury's Laws of England, 3rd Edn., Vol. 28 at page 77, this position is further explained as under "An exception to the general rule that the burden of proof of the alleged negligence is in the first instance on the plaintiff occurs whenever the facts already established are such that the proper and natural inference arising from them is that the injury complained of was caused by the defendant's negligence, or, where the event charged as negligence 'tells its own story' of negligence on part of the defendant, the story so told being clear and unambiguous."

(2.) Their Lordships of the Supreme Court in Pushpabhai Purshottam Udeshi v. Ranjit Ginning and Pressing Co., 1977 ACJ 343 (SC), had occasion to examine the maxim 'res ipsa loquitur', It was propounded that:

(3.) Applying the principle as indicated hereinabove, I proceed to examine whether the requirements are satisfied in the instant case.