S.Naqui Imam, J.

1. The defendant, the Union of India as owner of the North Eastern Railway (formerly O. and T. Railway), Eastern Railway (formerly E. I. Railway), Central Railway (formerly G. I. P. Railway) and Western Railway (formerly B. B. and C. I. Railway) Administrations, is the appellant. The plaintiff, a firm known as Textile-Trading Company carrying on business of cloth at Birganj, Post Office Raxual, is the respondent. The plaintiff had brought a suit for damages on account of non-delivery of a part of the consignment by the defendant who had acted as a carrier for the plaintiff.

2. The plaintiffs case , shortly put, is that it carries on cloth business in Birganj in the name of Textile Trading Company and that it had purchased sixty-seven bales of cotton goods from Babana Trading Company Limited, Bombay and entrusted the same with the defendant to be delivered to the plaintiff at Raxaul, On 15-8-1950, only 64 bales out of the 67 bales of cotton goods were delivered to the plaintiff which was granted a certificate of shortage of three bales of cloth which could not be delivered to it. The plaintiff preferred a claim demanding a sum of Rs. 2,824 annas 13 and 6 pie