MESNE PROFITS AND IMPROVEMENTS ACT, 1855

[THE MESNE PROFITS AND IMPROVEMENTS ACT, 1855]

ACT No. XI of 1855

[27th March, 1855]

(Short title given by the Short Titles Act, 1897 (14 of 1897).

The Act has been declared to be in force in all the Provinces and the Capital of the Federation, except the Scheduled Districts, by the Laws Local Extent Act, 1874 (15 of 874), s. 3.

It has been declared, by notification under s. 3(a) of the Scheduled Districts Act, 1874 (14 of 1874), to be in force in the following Scheduled Districts, namely :‑

Sand . . . . . . See Gazette of India, 1880, Pt. I, p. 672.

The Districts of Hazara, Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan. [Portions of the Districts of Hazara, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan and the Districts of Peshawar and Kohat now form the N.‑W.F.P., see Gazette of India, 1901, Pt. 1, p 857 and ibid. 1901 Pt. 1, p. 575 ; but its application to that portion of the Hazara District known as Upper Tanawal has been barred by the Hazara (Upper Tanawal) Regulation, 1900 (2 of 1900)1‑See Gazette of India, 1886, Pt. I, p. 48.

The District of Sylhet . .See Gazette of India, 1879, Pt. I, p. 631.)

An Act relating to mesne profits and to improvements made by hold­ers under defective titles in cases to which the English Law is applicable.

Preamble. WHEREAS it is expedient, in cases to which the English law is applicable, to limit the liability for mesne profits and to secure to bona fide holders under defective titles the value of improvement made by them ; It is enacted as follows :‑

1. No person chargeable with rent bona fide paid to holder under defective title. (The words in italics in the title and in the preamble, together with s. 1 rep. in places to which the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 (4 of 1882), extends or is extended‑See Act 4 of 1882; s. 2 and Sch.)No person shall be chargeable with any rents or profits of any immovable property which he has bona fide paid over to any person of whom he bona fide held the same, notwithstanding it may afterwards appear that the person to whom such payment p was made had no right to receive such rents or profits.

2. Value of improvements made by bona fide holders under defective titles secured to them.If any person shall erect any building or make an improvement upon any lands held by him bona fide in the belief that he had an estate in fee‑simple, or other absolute estate, and such person, his heirs or assigns, or his or their under‑tenants, be evicted from such lands by any person having a better title, the person who erected the building or made the improvement, his heirs or assigns, shall be entitled either to have the value of the building or improvement so erected or made during such holding and in such belief, estimated and paid or secured to him or them, or, at the option of the person causing the eviction, to purchase the interest of such person in the lands at the value thereof, irrespective of the value of such building or improvement:

Amount how fixed. Provided that the amount to be paid or secured in respect of such building or improvement shall be the estimated value of the same at the time of such eviction.

3. Act to apply only to cases governed by English Law. Nothing in this Act contained shall extend to any case to which the English law is not applicable.