Limitations

341. [Deleted].

342. It is the business of the Treasury Officer to see that no item is credited as a deposit save under formal order of compentent authority, and also if the amount could be credited to some known head in the Government account, to make represetations to the court or authority ordering its acceptance. No sums are to be credited in any deposit register which can be carried to any other head of account ; for example, revenue paid to the Government on account of a demand not yet due should at once be finally carried to the proper head of revenue and may not be placed in deposit.

NOTE—Government promissory notes or other security deposits (not being cash) received from revenue farmers or other contractors are not revenue, and must on no account be credited as revenue.

343. The treatment of the following items as Deposit is prohibited :

(a) No pay, pension, or other allowance should be placed in Deposit on the ground of the absence of the payee or for any other reason; in a district office pay should not be drawn till the claimant appears.

NOTE—When a pension is granted to several persons jointly, it may not be drawn on the appearances of one claimant only, and payment of his computed share made, the balance being placed in Deposit.

(b) No fines should be placed in Deposit on the ground that appeal is pending; they should be credited atonce to the appropriate head of revenue, and refunded, if necessary, on order of the appellate court. But compensation fines (including costs in criminal cases) due to an injured party, and not to Government should be kept in Deposit both in appealable and non-appealable cases, till they lapse under the ordinary rule.

NOTE—Fines payable to local bodies under any law, or ordered by courts to be distributed as rewards to Government servants or private persons, should not be paid atonce, but kept under "Criminal Court Deposits" till the period allowed for appeal has elapsed, or if an appeal is presented, till it is decided.

(c) Refunds, whether of stamp or of other receipts can be drawn only on the appearance and on the receipt, of the person entitled to them, after production of due authority; on no account may they be charged on the receipt of an official and lodged in Deposit pending demand.

NOTE—The following rules have been laid down for the payment of refunds of revenue credited other than income-tax or amounts deposited in cases where the amount involved does not exceed Rs. 100 or in the case of Civil Court Deposits, Rs. 500 :

(1) On receipt of a refund order passed by the Collector or other officer concerned, the Treasury Officer may at his discretion issue a notice (a) inviting the person to whom the refund is to be made to receive payment at the Treasury, and (b) intimating that on failure to comply with the invitation within one month (or such longer period as may appear necessary) the amount of the refund will be remitted to the payee by postal money order at his expense.

(2) When the payee appears in person at the Treasury, the Treasury Officer should see that no avoidable delay occurs in getting the voucher for the refund signed by the payee who may then recieve the payment personally or by a duly authorized agent or by money order at his own expense.

(3) When a money order is issued under clause (b) of the notice referred to in clause (1) the purpose of the remittance should be briefly stated by the Treasury Officer on the acknowledgment portion of the money order form in continuation of the printed entry there :

"Received the sum specified above on......", sufficient space being left below the manuscript entry thus made, for the signature or thumb-impression of the payee. The amount of the money order should not be remitted in cash to the post office, but the Treasury Officer should send a money order form duly filled in together with a certificate that the amount of the order and the money fee thereon have been credited to the post office in the Treasury accounts by per contra transfer. The post office will accept the money orders on the authority of the Treasury Officer’s certificate. In the case of undelivered money orders issued by the Treasury Officer the post office will not send the cash with the money orders to the Treasury but will credit the amount by book transfer.

(4) On receipt of the money order acknowledgment duly signed by the payee, it should be attached to the usual receipt in form no. 19 or 39 as the case may be, in which the full amount of the refund and the deduction made therefrom on account of the money order fee should be clearly shown; the receipt will then be disposed of in the usual way. The Accountant General will accept such voucher with the money order acknowledgment as a valid receipt for full amount of the refund entered therein.

344. (a) The net sale-proceeds of impounded cattle are to be kept in Deposit for three months, and if no claim be made within that time, are to be credited to the proper account.

(b) The sale-proceeds of unclaimed property are not to be placed in Deposit at all; under Act V of 1861, section 26, the property itself is to be kept for six months, but money realized by sale is at once (section 27) at the disposal of the Government, and should be taken to credit of administration of justice. Exception must, however, be made in the case of property left by persons dying intestate and without heirs, which civil courts will secure and hold for certain periods in accordance with the local law.

NOTES—(1) If unclaimed property be perishable and be sold because it can not be kept, its proceeds should be held for six months in Deposit, but the circumstances should be clearly stated under "Nature of Deposit."

(2) Money belonging to prisoners in jail should not be held for long terms by the jail department; but should be paid into the Treasury at convenient intervals. Such Deposits should be classed as "Revenue Deposits" and repayments should be made in accordance with the procedure laid down in clause (b) of paragraph 346.

(3) The Police Department should have no Deposits except security and earnest money deposits, which should be paid into the Treasury as Revenue Deposits; unclaimed property found by, or delivered up to a police office should be made over to the magistrate; proceeds of sales of old stores of other Government property should be paid into the Treasury for credit to the revenues of the State; no pay, reward, or other allowance payable to a police officer should be held undisbursed.

(4) Money belonging to the mental patients confined in a Mental Hospital shall be deposited into the Treasury without undue delay, to be credited into the Public Account as "Revenue Deposits." Repayments, of this money shall be made in accordance with the procedure laid down in note (2) under paragraph 346.

345. Money tendered as Personal Deposits by private individuals or by Government servants acting in other than their official capacity, and funds of quasi-public institutions even though, like certain dispensaries, that are aided by the Government, should not, be accepted for Deposit in a Treasury without the special or general sanction of the Government. Nor can any jewels or other property received for custody and restoration in kind be brought on the Deposit Register, though the value be stated in money.