AMARENDRA NATH SEN, J.

( 1 ) THIS is an application under Section 25, Provincial Small Cause Courts Act. The plff. Surendra Nath Poddar is the applicant and the Governor General in Council and the Manager of the Bengal and Assam Railway are the deft. opp. parties.

( 2 ) THE plff. sued for the recovery of compensation for non-delivery of one out of a number of bales of cloth which was booked by the plff. at Sealdah Railway station on 31-8-1944 to be delivered to him at Kasiani. The Railway failed to deliver one bale and the plff claimed compensation for that bale. There was a series of letters between the plff. and the Chief Traffic Manager and on the failure of the Rly. to satisfy the plff. the plff. on 16-2-1945 sent a notice claiming compensation to the Chief Transportation Manager, Bengal and Assam Rly. , 3 Koilaghata Street. A notice was also sent in accordance with the provisions of Section 80, Civ. P. C.

( 3 ) THE defence taken by the Rly. Administration inter alia was that the goods had been stolen by some unknown persons and that the Railway was not responsible as none of the Railway servants had misappropriated the goods. There were two other defences taken namely that

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