SECRETARY OF STATE Vs. MANAK CHAND AND SONS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application under Section 25 of the Small Cause Courts Act. The application is made by the Secretary of State for India through the Agents, East Indian Railway and Great Indian Peninsula Railway. The opposite party is a firm, Manak Chand & Sons, carrying on business at Agra.

(2.) It is not the practice of this Court to interfere in cases under the Small Cause Courts Act with findings of fact, but in the present case I am satisfied after a perusal of the record and hearing counsel that the judgment here is absolutely perverse and ought not to be maintained. It would be a gross injustice to the applicant here to allow this judgment to stand. The facts are very simple. A Bombay firm sent a large parcel of goods to this firm of Manak Chand & Sons, and apparently, when the parcel arrived at Agra it was found that it had been tampered with. The plaintiff firm, as they were entitled to do, applied to the Railway for open delivery, and it is common ground that the parcel consigned to this plaintiff firm was opened on the Railway premises in the presence of the Head Goods Clerk, Balwant Singh. It was found at the time the contents of the parcel were examined that two items of goods had been extracted, namely, 10 yards of tweed at Rs. 9 a yard and 12 yards of white cashmere at Rs. 10 a yard.

(3.) It is to be remembered that at the time this open delivery was made the plaintiff firm brought the invoice of the goods to the Railway premises. Balwant Singh, the Head Goods Clerk, states in his evidence that an invoice in English was produced before him of which he made a copy. This copy is on the record and has been sworn by Balwant Singh to be an exact copy of the invoice which the plaintiff's agent produced to him. It was found on an examination of this invoice that the consignment of goods which was sent to this firm of Manak Chand at Agra contained a large number of silk articles. From the invoice which is on the record I find that the following articles were mentioned in it: