Carriers Act, 1865

The Carriers Act, 1865 sets out the rights and responsibilities of "common carriers" — businesses that transport goods for hire by land or inland waterway for the general public — when goods they are carrying are lost or damaged. It is one of the oldest laws in the corpus, dating to 1865, and has been amended repeatedly since.

Section 3 says a common carrier is not liable for loss or damage to certain valuable goods listed in the Schedule (such as gold, silver, jewellery, currency notes, and title-deeds) worth more than one hundred rupees, unless the person delivering the goods declared their value and description to the carrier in advance. Section 4 lets a carrier charge extra for the risk of carrying such declared valuable goods, at rates the carrier sets, but only if the higher rate is publicly displayed at the place of business in English and the local language. Section 5 lets someone who successfully claims for lost or damaged declared goods also recover any extra payment made for that risk.

Section 6 clarifies that for goods not on the Schedule, a carrier's liability cannot be limited by a mere public notice, but a carrier (other than one running a railroad or tramroad under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894) may limit liability through a special written contract signed by the goods' owner. Section 7 says owners of a railroad or tramroad cannot limit their liability by special contract for non-Schedule goods, and are only liable for loss caused by negligence or a criminal act of themselves, their agents, or servants.

Section 8 makes a common carrier liable for loss or damage caused by the negligence or criminal act of the carrier or their agents or servants, including for Schedule goods where the required declaration was not made. Section 9 relieves the person suing a carrier from having to prove that the loss was due to negligence or a criminal act — the burden effectively shifts to the carrier. Section 10 requires written notice of loss or injury to be given to the carrier before a lawsuit is filed, and within six months of the loss coming to the plaintiff's knowledge. Section 11 lets the government add further items to the Schedule of valuable goods by notification.

Because this is an 1865 law that predates Pakistan's independence and has been amended many times (including in 1899, 1921, and 1922, as the footnotes show, and it no longer applies to carriage by rail, which is now governed by separate railways legislation), the specific rupee thresholds and the current Schedule list should be checked against the official text rather than assumed to be unchanged.