India's New Sea-Carriage Statutes: CGSA 2025 and Bills of Lading Act

CGSA 2025 is the carriage-liability statute — the rules governing the sea carrier's duties and defences under bills of lading. Its Schedule carries the Hague-Visby architecture forward, and the provisions exporters and insurers live by are re-enacted rather than reformed: written notice of loss at removal, or within three days where loss is not apparent (Schedule, Art III(6)(a)); and the one-year discharge — carrier and ship "discharged from all liability" unless suit is brought within one year of delivery, extensible by post-dispute agreement, with a court able to allow up to three further months (Art III(6)(c)). Section 12 repeals the 1925 Act while saving accrued rights and pending proceedings, so losses on pre-commencement deliveries continue under the old Act's identical rule.

The unchanged substance is precisely why the citation change bites: the limitation mechanics, their extinguishing character, and their interaction with the unchanged nine-month multimodal bar under MTGA 1993 are analysed in full in the subrogation time-bars note — already written to the 2025 Act.

The companion Act modernises the private-law status of the bill of lading itself, in three short operative sections. Section 2 vests rights of suit: "every consignee of goods named in a bill of lading, and every endorsee … shall have transferred to and vested in him all rights of suit, and be subject to the same liabilities" as if the contract of carriage had been made with himself — the provision that lets the Indian exporter's buyer, or the endorsee bank, sue the carrier without privity gymnastics. Section 4 makes the signed bill conclusive evidence of shipment in the hands of a consignee or endorsee for value, as against the master or signer — subject to the s. 4(2) carve-outs where the holder had actual notice that the goods were not on board, or where the signer shows fraud without fault. Section 5 gives the Central Government a general power to issue directions for carrying out the Act — a housekeeping power, not a format-prescription regime. Section 6 repeals the 1856 Act with savings.

For trade documentation practice, the conclusive-evidence rule is the one to re-read: it is the legal engine behind the bill's negotiability-adjacent trust — why banks under credits and buyers at destination can rely on the bill's shipment statement — and its statutory home just moved.

The practical work created by the changeover is citation hygiene with legal stakes: bills of lading whose clause paramount invokes "the Indian Carriage of Goods by Sea Act, 1925" now reference a repealed statute; claims correspondence, subrogation notices and time-bar calendars must cite Act 19 of 2025 and its Schedule; and standing instructions to consignees about delivery conduct should carry the new Act's notice provisions. For shipments delivered before 10 September 2025, the old Acts continue to govern through the savings clauses — so a 2026 claims desk runs both regimes, keyed to delivery date. TradeWatch's marine evidence packets carry the applicable-statute determination and the recomputed clocks per shipment, cited to the Act in force for that delivery. Kanan Labs prepares claim-admissible evidence and deadline intelligence; it does not advise on, select, or bind insurance, and does not provide legal advice — your IRDAI-licensed broker and your counsel act on the record it keeps honest.