( 1 ) THE plaintiff has filed a suit for recovery of Rs 30,22,000/- for recovery of principal amount, interest and damages. The plaintiff claims to be a registered partnership firm engaged in the business of wholesale kirana merchant and commission agents dealing in various kinds of spices. The suit has been instituted through its partner Sh. S. K. Gupta. Defendant no. 1 is a Government of India undertaking while defendant no. 2 is its Assistant Marketing Manager.

( 2 ) IN the beginning of January, 1989 the plaintiff claims to have learned that the defendants were looking for a purchaser of cloves and an offer was thus made vide letter dated 03. 01. 1989 to the defendants for purchase of the entire quantity of cloves available with the State Trading Corporation of India (STC) at the price to be charged by the STC plus a commission of Rs 2 per kg for the defendants. This amount of Rs 2 was in addition to the expenses on account of sales tax, octroi and transport. In pursuance to the offer, the defendants are stated to have agreed to sell to the plaintiff 82 metric tons of cloves in terms of its letter dated 06. 01. 1989 with terms and conditions set out in t