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In our opinion, the position in Indian Law is not different Section 172 of the Contract Act which defines a 'pledge' affirms the English Common Law. Section 172 states that "the bailment of goods as security for payment of a debt or performance of a promise" is called' a "pledge". The bailor is in this case called the "pawnor" and the bailee is called the "pawnee". According to s. |48 of the Contract Act "a bailment is the delivery of goods by one .person to another for some purpose, upon a contract that they shall, when the purpose is accomplished, be returned or otherwise disposed of according to the directions of the person delivering them. The person delivering the goods is called the 'bailor'. The person to whom they are delivered is called the 'bailee'. Section 149 states that the delivery to the bailee may be made by doing anything which has the effect of putting the goods in the possession of the intended bailee or of any person authorised to hold them on his behalf. Reference should also be made to s. 178 of the Contract Act, as it stood before the Indian Contract (Amendment) Act, 1930. The original s. 178 states:

By the Indian Contract (Amendment) Act, 1930 the section was repealed and the subject-matter of that section is now spread over the present ss. 178 and 178A of the Contract Act and s. 30 of the Indian Sale of Goods Act. The new section 178 of the Contract Act states:

"Where a mercantile agent is, with the consent of the owner, in possession of goods or the documents of title to goods, any pledge made by him, when acting in the ordinary course of business of a mercantile agent, shall be as valid as if he were expressly authorised by the owner of the goods to make the same; provided* that the pawnee acts in good faith and has not at the time of the pledge notice that the pawnor has no authority to pledge.

"178A. When the pawnor has obtained possession of the goods pledged by him trader a contract voidable under section 19 or section 19A, but the contract has not been rescinded at the time of the pledge, the pawnee acquires a good' title to the goods. provided he acts in good faith and without notice of the pawnor's defect of title."

After the passing of the Indian Contract (Amendment) Act, 1930 the legal position with regard to the pledge of railway receipts is exactly the same in Indian law as it is in English law and consequently the owner of the goods cannot, pledge the goods represented by the railway receipts in the present case unless the railway authorities are notified of the transfer and they agree to hold the goods as bailee for the piedgee.

Act (Amending Act IV of 1930). It was held by the Judicial Committee in that case that under the repealed s. 178 the owner of the goods could obtain a loan on security of a pledge of the goods by the pledge of the documents of title. But it is significant to note that s. 178 has been amended by the Amending Act, 1930 and under the present section statutory power to pledge goods or documents of title is expressly confined to mercantile agents while acting in the customary course of the business. There are two other instances in which a person other than the owner of the goods may make a valid pledge of the goods and these two instances are dealt with in s. 178A of the Contract Act and s. 30 of the Indian Sale of Goods Act. The result, therefore, under the amended law is that a valid pledge can no longer be made by every person "in possession" of goods. It can only be made by a mercantile agent as provided in the new s. 178 of the Contract Act or by a person who has obtained possession of the goods under a contract voidable under s. 19 or s. 19A of the Contract Act as provided in s. 178A, or by a seller or by a buyer in possession of goods after sale as provided in s. 30 of the Indian Sale of Goods Act. Learned Counsel for the appellants also referred to the decision of the Judicial Committee in Ramdas Vithaldas Durbar v.S. Amerchand & Co.(1) in which the Judicial Committee explained the legal effect of s. 103 of the Contract Act, as it originally stood. It was held by Lord Parker that the railway receipts are instruments of title within the meaning of the Indian Contract Act. 1872, s. 103, and that the sellers were therefore not entitled to stop the good's in transit except upon payment or tender to the pledgees of the advances made by them. It is manifest that the decision cannot afford assistance to the appellants. because, in the first place, it related to the construction of old s. 103 of the Contract Act in regard to the right of stoppage of goods in transit, and, in the second place, there has been a significant change in the law in view of the legislative amendment of s. 178 of the Contract Act by the Indian Contract (Amendment) Act. 1930. In the present case, therefore, our concluded opinion is that there is no valid pledge of the consignments of menthol crystals represented by the railway receipts in favour of the plaintiff-bank and the finding of the High Court on this point is erroneous in law We shall next deal with the question whether the plaintiff can sue on the contract of bailment even though there is no valid pledge of the goods in favour of the plaintiff. It was contended on behalf of the appellants that the plaintiff-bank was the endorse of railway receipts and, therefore, it was entitled to sue the defendants for compensation for the loss of the goods. We are unable to accept this argument as correct. At Common law a bill of lading was not negotiable like a bill of exchange so as to enable the endorsee to maharaja an action upon it in his own name, the effect of the (1914) 43 I.A. 164.