JUDGEMENT

Appeal (No. 57 of 1936) from a decree of the High Court (December 21, 1934) reversing a decree of the First Class Subordinate Judge of Surat (April 30, 1928).

On April 7, 1925, the appellants handed over 58 bales of cotton piece goods to the Bombay Baroda and Central India Railway Company at Surat for carriage to Sealdah on the Eastern Bengal Railway (a railway administered by Government) on the terms of Risk Note B. To reach the Eastern Bengal Railway system the consignment had to be carried for a considerable distance by the East Indian Railway— another railway administered by Government. According to the terms of Risk Note B.—the form of which had been approved by the Governor-General in Council under s. 72, sub-s. 2 (b), of the Indian Railways Act, 1890—the appellants, in consideration of being charged at a reduced rate, undertook (inter alia) to hold the railway companies over which the goods travelled free from all responsibility for any loss provided that in the case of non-delivery of the whole or part of the consignment the Railway Administration should be bound to disclose to the consignor how the consignment was dealt with throughout the time it was in its poss