The Court: This is an appeal from a judgment and decree dated the 30th of September, 1997, passed by the Hon'ble Mr. Justice Sujit Kumar Sinha, as His Lordship then was, decreeing the respondents' suit.

2. It is a little disheartening for us to dispose of a matter which started with an agreement between the parties made somewhere in the middle of the year 1973, after which 28 years have rolled by. The transactions, as we shall presently narrate, are commercial transactions, and a lot of the heat is lost if decades go by without any finality in the decision being reached.

3. Be that as it may, let us proceed on the principle better late than never.

4. The appellants entered into contracts for purchase of large quantities of jute sacking for delivery to the Government of Sudan. The total contract value was of the order of Rs. 2.5 crore. Much the larger part of the price has been paid and the dispute arises only with regard to a small portion thereof, about Rs. 13 lac. The contract was entered into in June, 1973. As per written terms the loading in ships was to be made in August or September, 1973; delivery at Sudan Port in September-October, 1973.

5. The contract was cos