Mesne Profits and Improvements Act, 1855

This 1855 Act protects people who, in good faith, paid rent to someone who turned out not to have had a valid right to receive it, and protects people who built or improved property while genuinely believing they owned it outright, only to later be evicted by someone with a better legal claim.

Section 1 provides that no one can be held liable for rent or profits from immovable property that they had already paid over in good faith to the person they believed held the property, even if it later turns out that person had no right to receive the payment.

Section 2 addresses the situation where someone builds a structure or makes an improvement on land while honestly believing they held full ownership (a "fee-simple" or other absolute estate), and is later evicted by a person with a better title. In that case, the builder (or their heirs) is entitled either to have the value of the building or improvement assessed and paid or secured to them, or -- if the evicting party prefers -- to instead purchase that person's remaining interest in the land at its value, separate from the value of the improvement. The value used is the improvement's estimated worth at the time of eviction.

Section 3, which originally limited the Act's application to cases governed by English law, has since been omitted by later amendment.

This is a very old statute (1855) with amendment footnotes noting later changes (including that section 1's core rule was superseded wherever the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 applies), so it should be read as historical background rather than a standalone current source of law in most of Pakistan today.