Railway Administration Has Statutory Right To Re-Weigh Consignment Before Delivery; Presence Of Consignor Not A Pre-Requisite: Jharkhand High Court

The Jharkhand High Court recently allowed an appeal under Railway Claims Tribunal Act, 1987 observing that the Railway Authority has the statutory right to re-weigh the goods before delivery. Further, the same may be done in the absence of the consignor, as it will be highly impracticable to detain the consignment until the representative of the consignor arrives.

Justice Gautam Choudhary observed,

"Re weighment is a statutory right of the railway administration to check all short of malpractices, and a clog on this cannot be imposed by laying down unrealistic conditionalities like presence of the consignor at the time of reweighment. Considering the length and breadth of our country and the span in which the railways network is spread out is it possible to detain the goods train enroute till the representative arrives there?"

Background

An appeal was filed under Section 23 of the Railway Claims Tribunal Act,  1987, challenging the judgment of a Member of the Railway Claims Tribunal directing the Authority to refund to the punitive charges paid by the respondents along with 6% interest per annum.

The respondent had booked a consignment for dispatch of cement. The same was loaded from Bhatapara and the weight of 20 wagons was 1241.00 MT. However, the consignment was reweighed at 1355.40 MT before reaching the destination site. Given the overloading, punitive charges amounting to Rs. 3,71,328/- was raised against the respondent.

The respondent moved the Railway claim Tribunal for a refund of the punitive charges under Section 16 of the Railway Claim Tribunal Act, 1987, which was allowed. It was argued that the overloading was found en route without notice to the applicant was wrong.

Findings of the Court

The Court noted that the respondent had paid the punitive charges without any objection and any protest. Once the excess weight had been accepted, the plea against overloading and consequent punitive charges cannot be raised.

The main issue was whether the Railways had the right to reweigh the consignment and whether it followed the necessary procedure. Section 78 of the Railways Act 1989 lays down specific power to reweigh the consignment.

On reading Section 78 of the Railways Act, the Court observed that the Railway was entitled to reweight the consignment. The Tribunal had allowed the application on the ground that none of the representatives were present when the consignment was being reweighed. The Court noted,

"The impugned order is laconic and has allowed the refund of penalty for overloading merely on the ground that no representative was present. Section 73 specifically provides that the railway administration may reweigh the consignment and recalculate the freight and other charges before delivering the goods. During rebooking of the consignment from Bhatapara to Jagdishpur, the respondent paid the punitive charges without any objection and any protest."

Case Title: Union of India v. M/s Muva Industries Ltd. & Ors.

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Jha) 16

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