- (1.) Steel Authority of India Limited, the plaintiff, instituted this suit in September, 1981 against Bangladesh Shipping Corporation, Himalaya Shipping Co. Limited and the Bengal Bonded Warehouse Association, impleading them respectively as the defendant Nos. 1, 2, and 3 caliming, inter alia, the following reliefs: - (a) Specific delivery of consignments covered by five bills of lading. (b) In addition, damages at the rate of Rs. 550/- per day from the 20th September, 1980 till delivery of possession thereof. (c) Alternatively, an enquiry into damages and a decree for the sum found due thereon. (d) In the event specific delivery of the said consignments cannot be had, decree for Rs. 11,14,244.15 or alternatively further enquiry into damages. (e) Further interest and costs.
(2.) The case of the plaintiff is that the defendant Nos. 1 and 2 are common carriers and carry on business of carriage of goods by sea for hire. The defendant No. 2 is the agent of defendant No. 1 India and, inter alia, is responsible for handling of cargo in the Port of Calcutta carried in the vessels of the defendant No. 1.
(3.) Under an actual user's licence the plaintiff imported from London divers machinery and parts consisting, inter alia, of gears, vibrators, oil filters and bearings (hereinafter referred to as the said goods) for use at its Durgapur steel plant. The said goods were shipped on board the vessel S. S. "Banglar Maitri" (hereinafter referred to as the said vessel) owned by the defendant No. 1.;