NARAIN RAM CHANDRA KELKAR Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE short question that arises in this revision and which has been referred by Justice Vishnu Datta to a Bench is whether the claim for compensation for the loss or destruction of goods delivered to be carried must be posted, sent or despatched within six months from the date of the delivery of the goods for carriage or must be received by the railway administration within this period. The facts are that the goods were delivered to be carried on 4 -8 -53. When the applicant, who was the endorsee of the railway receipt, went to the Kanauj railway station to take delivery he found that the tins were empty and the contents had disappeared. On 4 -2 -54 he sent by post a notice of his claim for compensation for the loss of the goods, addressed to the railway administration at Gorakhpur. It is admitted that 4 -2 -54 was the last date of the period of six months Within which the claim must be preferred in writing to the railway administration under Section 77 of the Railway Act. It is also not in dispute that the claim sent by post must have taken at least two days to reach the railway administration at Gorakhpur and that consequently the Rail way administration received the claim after the expiry of six months from the date of the delivery of the goods for carriage.

(2.) WE have no doubt that "preferred in writing ... to the railway administration" means that the written claim has reached the railway administration. 'Prefer" means "to lay (a matter) before any one formally for consideration, approval, or sanction; to bring forward, present, submit (a statement, bill, indictment, information, prayer, etc.) To put, place, or set (something) before any one for acceptance" -Murray's Dictionary. So there can be no preferment unless the matter reaches the person to whom it is to be preferred. By simply writing out a claim addressed to the railway administration, one cannot be said to have preferred a claim to it. If it is not posted and has not reached the railway administration it has certainly not been preferred to it. Preferring a claim to a particular person involves the element that the claim has been brought to his notice; otherwise the requirement that the claim must be preferred to a particular person loses its importance. The law is not that the claim must be preferred; it is that it must be preferred to a particular person and it cannot be said to be preferred to a particular person unless he receives it. Walsh Acting C.J., and Banerji, J., in ChaturBhuj Ram Lal v. Secretary of State for India : AIR 1927 All. 215 at p. 217. observed:

(3.) IN Secretary of State v. Firm Imperial Metal Works : AIR 1926 All. 214 Daniels, J., took the same view. It is also consistent with the provisions of S. 140 of the railways Act which requires that: