Thiru Justice E.J. Bellie, President—The opposite party M/s. Himachal Pradesh Horticulture Produce Marketing & Processing Corpn. Ltd. is maintaining a cold storage facility at Madras wherein it used to store vegetables and apples that would be brought by traders. The ease of the complainant firm is that it had stored apples in the said cold storage. From 30.10.1994 to 15.11.1994 the cold storage was not maintained at the necessary temperature viz; 2° Celcius to 4° Celcius. The opposite party failed to maintain the necessary generator to avail of during power failures, and that resulted in damage to the fruit’s. On account of this, he had to sell 2741 full cases of apples at a very low rate and thereby he sustainted heavy loss. The failure to maintain properly the temperature condition in the cold storage clearly amounts to deficiency in service on the part of the opposite party. On these allegations, the complaint has been filed for compensation.

2. The opposite party contends that because of heavy cyclonic weather there was storm between the period 30.10.1994 and 15.11.1994 on account of which the transformer of the T.N.E.B. [Tamil Nadu Electricity Board] fell on the cold stor