The main legal point established in the judgment is that the terms of the contract between the parties, the rights and obligations under the Railway Act, and the common conduct of railway companies in similar circumstances are crucial in determining the resolution of disputes over freight charges.

Hallifax, A J C—On the 25th March 1925 the first plaintiff, who opposes this application for revision, consigned a quantitity of charcoal at the Byaora station on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway for conveyance to Byculla on the same railway. The Station Master informed him that the charcoal could be sent at what is called the ''Q rate'', which in this case is a wagon-rate and worked out at Rs. 126. That is a reduced rate and goods sent under it are carried at owner's risk. As a matter of fact, however, charcoal had not been allowed to be booked at that station at the wagon-rate since 1923; it could be sent only at the first class rate or maund-rate, which entailed its going at railway risk.

2. On arrival at Byculla the charcoal was weighed and the freight was re-calculated at the maund-rate, with the result that the proper charge was found to be Rupees 305-7-0 in excess of the Es 126 paid at Byaora. This the plaintiff paid after some delay, which resulted in a further charge of Rs. 11 for demurrage. He then filed the suit out of which these proceedings have arisen in the Small Cause Court claiming a refund of the Rs. 316-7-0 he had paid with interest. He was given a decree for the Rs. 370 he claimed and the defendant Company has applied for revision of the judgment.

3. The learned Judge of the Small Cause Court has taken the usual short cut of deciding the case according to rulings, that is to say, he has not decided it at all. The conclusions in any judgment of the Privy Council or in a judgment of this Court which is officially published must be accepted as correct. A conclusion in any other judgment, taken by itself and apart from the reasons for it, is not even relevant, and much less is it to be accepted blindly, though the judgment will usually be of the greatest use as an exposition of reasons for coming to the same conclusion. Of the five judgments which the learned Judge mentions, only two are to be found in the Indian Law Reports, and only one gives reasons for the view taken.

4. The contract between the parties is embodied in two documents which are on the file, one executed by each of them. The first is a consignment note signed by the sender. In it he requests the Company to receive the goods specified by him and to send them to a certain station. At the bottom of the document these words are printed: N.B. - The attention of the Sender or the Deliverer of the goods is invited to the principal terms and conditions applying to the carriage of goods by Railway, as set forth in the public notice printed on the back of the Railway Receipt.

5. The other document, which is the counterpart of the consignment note, is the railway receipt executed by the Company. It is an acknowledgment of the receipt of the goods, a statement of the sum paid by the consignor and the way in which that sum has been calculated, and an agreement to convey them to the destination stated and deliver them as directed, subject to certain conditions. A few of these are printed at the bottom of the front of the sheet, and among them are the words, underlined for emphasis : ''Special attention is drawn to the notes on the back, which form a legal contract''. On the back is a statement that the Railway Company gives public notice of eleven different matters of which the sixth is as follows: The Railway have the right of re-measurement, re-weighment, re-classification and re-calculation of rates, terminals and other charges at the place of destination, and of collecting before the goods are delivered, any amount that may have been omitted or undercharged.

6. The plaintiff then undoubtedly did agree that the Railway Company was entitled to re-calculate the rates at Byculla, and that he would have to pay any amount that was then found to have been undercharged or allow the Company to realize it by selling the goods. It has been suggested on his behalf in this Court that the calculation at Byculla could only be made on the same basis as that at Byao