SENIOR SUPERINTENDENT POST OFFICES Vs. BALBIR SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Whether Sections 6 and 48 of the Indian Post Office Act confer an absolute exemption from liability on the appellant-department for the delayed payment or delivery of a Money Order? This is the core question in this appeal.

(2.) In view of the pristinely legal question aforesaid the facts pale into in-significant. These may therefore be noticed with utmost brevity. The gravamen of the respondent, Balbir Singh's complaint was that on the 30th of October, 1992 he had sent Rs.1,000/- by Money Order to his wife Jasbir Kaur at Hoshiarpur. However, the said money order was not delivered to the addressee till more than three months thereafter, on the 16th of January, 1993.

(3.) In defending the complaint the appellant-department candidly admitted the broad factual position. The sending of the Money Order was admitted. It was however pleaded with some candour that owing to inadvertence the payment thereof could only be made on the 16th of January, 1993.