Public Accountants´ Default Act, 1850

The Public Accountants' Default Act, 1850 is one of the oldest laws in Pakistan's statute book, aimed at protecting public money and property handled by trusted officials. Section 1 requires every "public accountant" to give security for properly carrying out the duties of their office and for accounting for any money that comes into their possession because of that office.

Section 3 defines who counts as a "public accountant": for the security requirement, it covers anyone who, as an Official Assignee, Trustee, or sarbarahkar (manager), is entrusted with receiving, holding, or controlling money or securities, or managing land belonging to someone else. For the purposes of prosecution and recovery (Sections 4 and 5), the definition is broader still, also covering any person who, through a government office they hold, is entrusted with money, securities, or the management of land belonging to the Government.

Section 2 leaves the amount and type of security, and the sureties required, to be set by whatever rules the appointing authority has made for that particular office. Section 4 gives the head of the office to which a public accountant belongs the power to proceed against the accountant and their sureties for any loss or shortfall in their accounts, treating the amount owed as if it were an unpaid arrear of land revenue — a powerful, streamlined recovery mechanism. Section 5 extends the land-revenue recovery laws (and the laws protecting people wrongly proceeded against) to these accountant-recovery proceedings.

This is a 174-year-old law that has been amended multiple times (notably by Adaptation Orders in 1937, 1949, and 1961) and partially repealed (Section 6 was removed in 1870). Given its age, anyone relying on it for a current dispute should verify the present text and how it interacts with the modern Revenue Recovery Act, 1890, which the Act itself references for enforcement procedure.