SECY OF STATE Vs. ANANT RAM CHOPRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a defendant's appeal, and arises out of a suit brought by the plaintiff- respondent for a declaration that a rule, recently introduced by the authorities of the East Indian Railway, providing that a consignment of locks of less than one maund in weight can only be booked at Railway risk, if it is packed in a inch thick wooden box, with two wooden battons on each of the four sides and further if the box is also secured with wire bands of which the center one is sealed by the despatcher is illegal, ultra vires and unenforceable, and that the defendant Railway has no right to refuse to book at Railway risk consignments of, looks packed securely in an iron box or otherwise. The plaintiff also prayed for an injunction restraining the Railway Company from enforcing the rule noted above.

(2.) The plaintiff's case was that he and other Aligarh lock merchants used to despatch consignments of locks of less than a maund in weight packed in iron boxes, and that the mode of packing adopted by them was comparatively more secure than that prescribed by the Railway Authorities, and that the Railway Administration was not competent to prescribe a particular method of packing as a condition precedent to the booking of consignments at Railway risk.

(3.) The defence to the suit was that the suit was not maintainable, that the method of packing adopted by the lock merchants of Aligarh was insecure, and gave opportunities for various acts of fraud being committed, resulting in claims being made against the Railway Administration and that the rule in question was framed in the exercise of the powers vested in a Railway Administration by the Indian Railways Act and was perfectly valid.