TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1962 (3) TMI 103
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....d on the same day by two railway receipts. The consignments however did not reach Jagadhari. The appellant made inquiries and when no delivery was made he made a claim on the railway on November 30, 1947, for the price of the goods not delivered. Later, on January 22, 1948, the appellant gave notice to the railway under s. 80 of the Code of Civil Procedure in which it was said that the goods booked under the two railway receipts had not been delivered in spite of repeated reminders and demands from the officials concerned. It was further said that the value of the goods booked was Rs. 24,189/4/- and that the railway was liable for this loss which was due to the negligence of the railway. It was further stated that the cause of action arose on August 21 and 30, 1947 and on subsequent dates when the appellant met with refusal. It was finally said that if the amount was not paid a suit would be brought against the railway. It seems however that in spite this notice correspondence went on between the appellant and the railway and on December 1, 1948, the railway informed the appellant that the two consignments were still lying at Gujranwala and that their despatch had been withheld by ....
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....es prevailing in August 1947 that the goods ought to have been delivered at the most within five or six months of the booking and therefore the suit was 'barred by limitation as it was brought in December 1949, the period of limitation being only one year. The High Court therefore allowed the appeal, set aside the decree of the trial court and dismissed the suit. It however ordered the parties to bear their costs. As the case involved a substantial question of law the High Court granted a certificate to the appellant; and that is how the matter has come up before us. Article 31 reads as follows ____________________________________________________________ Description of suit Period of imitation Time from which period beings to run x x x x x x ....
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....e estopped from pleading that the time began to run from sometime anterior to the period before the correspondence on the question came to an end. It may however be noted that though the majority of the decisions follow these two lines of reasoning and hold that time begins to run only when the railway finally refuses to deliver the goods, here and there a dissentient note has also been struck. We shall consider some of these cases later. Let us first see what these words in Art. 31 mean on a plain grammatical construction. It would be noticed that Art. 31 as it now stands after the Limitation Act of 1877 and 1909, governs two class of cases, namely, (i) where there has been no delivery of goods and (ii) where there has been delay in delivering goods. In both class of cases the time begins to run from the date when the goods ought to be delivered. These words therefore in column three of the Article must have a meaning which will apply equally to the two situations envisaged in column one. Whether there has been nondelivery or there has been delay in delivery, in either case limitation would run from the date when the goods ought to be delivered. Now it is not in dispute that if....
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....from the date of refusal it has used appropriate words in that connection. For example, in Art. 18, which provides for a suit for compensation against Government when the acquisition is not completed, the time begins to run from "the date of the refusal to complete". Similarly, in Art. 78 which provides for a suit by the payee against the drawer of a bill of exchange which has been dishonoured by non acceptance, time begins to run from "the date of the refusal to accept". Again in Art. 131 which provides for a suit to establish a periodically recurring right,' the limitation begins to run "when the plaintiff is first refused the enjoyment of the righe'. Therefore, if the legislature intended that in case of non-delivery, the limitation would start on the final refusal of the carrier to deliver, such a case would have been provided for by a separate article and we would have found appropriate words in the third column thereof. The very fact that Art. 31 deals with both cases of non-delivery of goods and delay in delivering the goods shows that in either case the starting point of limitation is after reasonable time has elapsed for the carriage of goods from the place of despatch to ....
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..... But it has taken into account the subsequent conduct of the railway and the fact that there was no refusal to deliver the goods till much later. It was therefore held that as the suit was brought within one year of the final refusal to deliver, it was within time. With respect, it is rather difficult to understand how the subsequent correspondence between the railway and the consignor or the consignee can make any difference to the starting point of limitation, when that correspondence only showed that the railway was trying to trace the goods. The period that might be taken in tracing the goods can have no relevance in determining the reasonable time that is required for the carriage of the goods from the place of despatch to the place of destination. In Bengal and North Western Railway Company v. Maharajadhiraj Ramhwar Singh Bahadur A.I.R. (1951) Cal. 462 it was held that "the defendants (i.e. Railway) by a deliberate process of ignoring the plantiff"s repeated requests for attention to his claim misled him into delaying his suit and it is not open to them (1) (1933) I.L R. 12 Pat. 67, 77. now to contend that the suit has been brought too late." This case seems to be based o....
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.... the correspondence is only about tracing the goods that would not be material in considering the question as to when the goods ought to have been delivered. On the other hand if the correspondence discloses material which might throw light on the question of determining the reasonable time for the carriage of the goods from the place of despatch to the place of destination, then it may be open to the court to take into account the correspondence. Further, if there is anything in the correspondence which has a bearing on the question of reasonable time and the railway wants to go back on that, to that extent the railway may be estopped from denying that. But the correspondence can only be taken into account to determine what would be the reasonable time and not to show that because of the subsequent conduct of the railway the reasonable time got extended by the time taken by the railway in tracing the goods. Where however the correspondence provides material from which reasonable time in a particular case may' be found out the .correspondence would be relevant to that extent. For example, take a case where the correspondence ,shows that a certain bridge between the place of despatc....
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....January 22, 1948 when he gave the notice. If that was not so and if the cause of action had not arisen, there was no reason why the appellant should have given the notice under a. 80 in January 1948. We can see no difficulty therefore on the facts of this case 'in agreeing with the High Court that the goods 'ought to have been delivered even taking into account the extraordinary circumstances prevailing on account of partition within five or six months of the date on which they were sent, namely, August 5, 1947. This is also home out by the fact that the appellant gave notice on January 22, 1948 i.e. about 5-1/2 months after the goods had been consigned. In the circumstances the suit which was brought in December 1949 would be clearly barred by time, for we cannot take the reasonable time within which the goods ought to have been delivered in the circumstances of this case beyond January 22, 1948, when the notice under s. 80 was given. As to the correspondence between the parties it in enough to say that there is nothing in the correspondence which has any bearing on the reasonable time taken for the carriage of goods from Gujranwala to Jagadhari. It is true that on December 1, 194....