A.P.Srivastava, J. - (1.) This is a defendants' appeal that arises out of a suit filed by the respondent for the recovery of Rs. 18,000/- as damages.
(2.) The case with which the respondent came to court was that the firm Vergi La) Chamshi Shah despatched 660 tins of ground-nut oil from Veldurti to Ghaziabad railway station under Railway Receipt No. 13470 dated the 4th or August, 1947. In due course the railway receipt was endorsed in favour of the Central Bank of India which, in its turn, endorsed it in favour of the Allahabad Bank which again was endorsed in favour of the plaintiff-respondent. The consignment was not delivered to the plaintiff on demand and, therefore, the plaintiff after serving the necessary notices required by Section 77 of the Indian Railways Act and Section 80 C.P.C. filed a suit against the present appellants for the recovery of Rs. 16,845/13/6 as the price of the consignment and Rs. 1154/2/6 by way of interest as damages at 6 per cent per annum. Risk Notes A and Z had admittedly been executed in respect of the consignment in question.
(3.) The suit was contested by the defendants on various grounds. We are not concerned at present with the other pleas raised. The main contention urged was that after the consignment had been transhipped at Sikandrabad from the meterguage wagon to the broadguage wagon and while the wagon containing the consignment was stabled at the Asaoti railway station on the erstwhile G.I.P. railway, the entire train including the wagon containing the consignment in question was looted sometime between the 5th of September, 1947 and the 13th of September, 1947. The looting was done in connection with the disturbances that followed the creation of two dominions in the country. The defendants therefore pleaded that the loss of the consignment was due to reasons beyond their control and they were, therefore, not liable.;