JUDGMENT :- This is a plaintiff's appeal whose suit for recovery of compensation for non-delivery of a bale of cotton consigned at railway station New Delhi on the Northern Railway on 1-2-1961 for carriage to railway station Katarniaghat on the North Eastern Railway was decreed by the trial court but dismissed by the lower appellate court. The main ground on which the lower appellate court dismissed the plaintiff's suit was that he had not complied with the provisions of Section 77 of the Railways Act, 1890.

2. On behalf of the plaintiff-appellant it is alleged that the plaintiff had duly complied with the requirements of Section 77 as would be evident from the documents on record. Firstly, it is pointed out that the plaintiff delivered a notice under Section 77 dated 7-4-1961 to some clerk in the office of the Chief Commercial Superintendent, Gorakhpur on the same date and in token of his receipt he Rot the signature of that clerk and the seal of his office put on Ext. 9. On behalf of the railway administration the receipt of this notice was denied and it was suggested that the signature and the seal had been spuriously obtained in collusion with some clerk in the Chief Co