An Ordinance to provide for regulating the quality of certain seeds for sale and for matters connected therewith. WHEREAS it is expedient to provide for regulating the quality of certain seeds for sale for matters connected therewith; NOW, THEREFORE, in pursuance of the Proclamations of the 20th August, 1975, and the 8th November, 1975, and in exercise of all powers enabling him in that behalf, the President is pleased to make and promulgate the following Ordinance :-
This Ordinance may be called the Seeds Ordinance, 1977.
In this Ordinance unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context,-
and includes seedlings, and tubers, bulbs, rhizomes, root cuttings, all types of grafts and other vegetatively propagated materials;
Provided that, farmer producing or hoarding seeds partly for his own use and partly for sale in the local hats and bazars by himself or through any other person, in small quantities shall not be treated as Seed Dealer.
(1) The Government shall, as soon as may be after the commencement of this Ordinance, constitute a Board to be called the National Seed Board to advise the Government on matters arising out of the administration of this Ordinance and to carry out the other functions assigned to it by or under this Ordinance.
4(2) The Board shall consist of the following members, namely-(3) [Omitted by section 3 of the Seeds (Amendment) Act, 2005 (Act No. XXVI of 2005).]
(4) The Government shall provide the Board with such clerical and other staff as it may consider necessary.
(5) The Government shall, by notification in the official Gazette, publish the 5names and designations of all the members of the Board and thereupon the Board shall be deemed to be constituted.
(6) [Omitted by section 3 of the Seeds (Amendment) Act, 1997 (Act No. XIII of 1997).]
6(7) The Government may, at any time, terminate the appointment of a member of the Board without assigning any reason. The tenure of the members of the Board representing Private Seed Dealers and Merchants, Private Seed Growers, and Farmer's Community shall be for a period of three years.(8) When a member of the Board dies, resigns or otherwise ceases to be a member, the vacancy shall be filled by fresh appointment 7 *.
(9) No person shall be, or shall continue to be, a member who-
(10) The Board may appoint one or more committees consisting wholly of members of the Board or wholly of other persons or partly of members of the Board and partly of other persons, as it thinks fit, for the purpose of discharging such of its functions as may be delegated to such committee or committees by the Board.
(11) The Board may, subject to the previous approval of the Government, make by-laws for regulating its own procedure and the procedure of a committee appointed by it under sub-section (10) and the conduct of all business to be transacted by it or a committee.
(12) No act or proceeding of the Board shall be invalid merely on the ground of the existence of any vacancy in, or any defect in the constitution of, the Board.
The Government may 8establish Seed Laboratory to be called the Government Seed Laboratory or declare, by notification in the official Gazette, any Seed Laboratory as the Government Seed Laboratory for the purposes of this Ordinance.
(2) New varieties of non-notified crops developed by public or private agencies will be subject to approval and certification by the Board before being released.
(3) New varieties of notified crops developed by public agencies will be subject to approval by, and be registered with the Board before being released.
(4) Varieties of non-notified crops those are imported or locally developed by a private agency shall be registered with the Board giving prescribed cultivar description.
(5) In the event of a seed of any kind or variety is found to be harmful or potentially harmful to agriculture in any way, the Board may prohibit the sale, distribution, bartering, or otherwise supplying, import and use of that variety and may take any other action in the interest of agriculture.
(6) Any proposal for release of new varieties of notified crops shall be examined by a Technical Committee headed by the Executive Vice-Chairman. Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC), and consisting of representatives of National Agricultural Research System (NARS). Seed Certification Agency, Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC), private sector Seed Growers and Farmers Associations and make recommendation to the Board.
(7) Proposal for release of new varieties of non-notified crops developed by any public agency shall be subject to examination by the Technical Committee formed under sub-section (6).
(2) The functions of SCA shall among other things include:
(1) Any person selling, keeping for sale, offering to sell, bartering or otherwise supplying any seed of 17any kind or variety may, if he desires to have such seed certified by the Certification Agency, apply to the Certification Agency for grant of a certificate for the purpose.
(2) Every application under sub-section (1) shall be made in such form, shall contain such particulars and shall be accompanied by such fees as may be prescribed.
(3) On receipt of any such application for the grant of a certificate, the Certification Agency may, after such enquiry as it thinks fit and after satisfying itself that the seed to which the application relates conforms at least to the minimum limits of germination and purity specified for that seed under clause (a) of section 6, grant a certificate in such form and on such conditions as may be prescribed.
If the Certification Agency is satisfied, either on a reference made to it in this behalf or otherwise, that-
then, without prejudice to any other penalty to which the holder of the certificate may be liable under this Ordinance, the Certification Agency may, after giving the holder of the certificate an opportunity of showing cause, revoke the certificate.
(1) Any person aggrieved by a decision of the Certification Agency under section 9 or section 10 may, within thirty days from the date on which the decision is communicated to him and on payment of such fees as may be prescribed, prefer an appeal to such authority as may be specified by the Government in this behalf:
Provided that the appellate authority may entertain an appeal after the expiry of the said period of thirty days if it is satisfied that the appellant was prevented by sufficient cause from filing the appeal in time.
(2) On receipt of an appeal under sub-section (1), the appellate authority shall, after giving the appellant an opportunity of being heard, dispose of the appeal as expeditiously as possible.
(3) Every order of the appellate authority under this section shall be final.
The Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, appoint such persons as it thinks fit, having the prescribed qualifications, to be Seed Analyst and define the areas within which they shall exercise jurisdiction.
(1) The Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, appoint such persons as it thinks fit, having the prescribed qualifications, to be Seed Inspectors and define the areas within which they shall exercise jurisdiction.
(2) Every Seed Inspector shall be deemed to be a public servant within the meaning of section 21 of the Penal Code (Act XLV of 1860) and shall be officially subordinate to such authority as the Government may specify in this behalf.
(1) The Seed Inspector may-
(2) Where any sample of any seed of 19any kind or variety is taken under clause (a) of sub-section (1), its cost, calculated at the rate at which such seed is usually sold to the public, shall be paid on demand to the person from whom it is taken.
(3) The power conferred by this section includes power to break open any container in which any seed of 20any kind or variety may be contained or to break open the door of any premises where any such seed may be kept for sale:
Provided that the power to break open the door shall be exercised only after the owner or any other person in occupation of the premises, if he is present therein, refuses to open the door on being called open to do so.
(4) Where the Seed Inspector takes any 21action under clause (a) of sub-section (1), he shall, as far as possible, call not less than two persons to be present at the time when such action is taken and take their signatures on a memorandum to be prepared in the prescribed form and manner.
(5) The provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (Act V of 1898) shall, so far as may be, apply to any search or seizure made this section as they apply to any search or seizure made under the authority of a warrant issued under section 98 of the said Code.
(1) Whenever a Seed Inspector intends to take sample of any seed of 22any kind or variety for analysis, he shall-
(2) When samples of any seed of 23any kind or variety are taken under sub-section (1), the Seed Inspector shall-
(3) If the person from whom the samples have been taken refuses to accept one of the samples, the Seed Inspector shall send intimation to the Seed Analyst of such refusal and thereupon the Seed Analyst receiving the sample for analysis shall divide it into two parts and shall seal or fasten up one of those parts and shall cause it, either upon receipt of the sample or when he delivers his report, to be delivered to the Seed Inspector who shall retain it for production in case legal proceedings are taken.
(4) Where a Seed Inspector takes any action under clause (c) of sub-section (1) of section 14-
(1) The Seed Analyst shall, as soon as may be, after the receipt of the sample under sub-section (2) of section 15, analyse the sample at the Seed Laboratory and deliver, in such form as may be prescribed, one copy of the report of result of the analysis to the Seed Inspector and another copy thereof to the person from whom the sample has been taken.
(2) After the institution of a prosecution under this Ordinance, the accused may, on payment of the prescribed fee, make an application to the Court for sending any of the samples mentioned in clause (a) or clause (c) of sub-section (2) of section 15 to the Seed Laboratory for its report and on receipt of the application, the Court shall first ascertain that the mark and the seal or fastening as provided in clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 15 are intact and may then despatch the sample under its own seal to the Seed Laboratory which shall thereupon send its report to the Court in the prescribed form within one month from the date of receipt of the sample, specifying the result of the analysis.
(3) The report sent by the Seed Laboratory under sub-section (2), shall supersede the report given by the Seed Analyst under sub-section (1).
(4) Where the report sent by the Seed Laboratory is produced in any proceedings, it shall not be necessary to produce in such proceedings any sample or part thereof taken for analysis.
(2) Seeds of approved varieties of all notified crops may be imported for commercial sale. Registered seed growers may be permitted to import small quantities of such varieties not approved by NSB for the purpose of research and adaptability testing.
(3) There shall be no restriction on import of seeds of non-notified crops, except for ensuring prescribed quality.
(4) All imported seeds shall be subject to the provisions of the Destructive Inspects and Pests Act, 1914 (Act No. II of 1914).
On the recommendation of the Board, the Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, recognise any seed certification agency established in any foreign country 25for the purposes of this Ordinance.
Notwithstanding anything contained in Section 32 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (Act No. V of 1898), it shall be lawful for any metropolitan magistrate or magistrate of the first class to pass a sentence of fine under this Ordinance exceeding ten thousand taka.]
If any person contravenes any provision of this Ordinance or any rule made there under, or prevents a Seed Inspector from taking sample under this Ordinance or prevents him from exercising any other power conferred upon him by or under this Ordinance, he shall, on conviction, be punishable-
When any person has been convicted under this Ordinance for the contravention of any of the provisions of this Ordinance or the rules made thereunder, the seed in respect of which the contravention has been committed may, if the Court so orders, be forfeited to the Government.
(1) Where an offence under this Ordinance has been committed by a company, every person who at the time the offence was committed was in charge of, and was responsible to, the company for the conduct of the business of the company as well as the company shall be deemed to be guilty of the offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly:
Provided that nothing contained in this sub-section shall render any such person liable to any punishment under this Ordinance if he proves that the offence was committed without his knowledge or that he exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such offence.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), where an offence under this Ordinance has been committed by a company and it is proved that the offence has been committed with the consent or connivance of, or is attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other officer of the company, such director, manager, secretary or other officer shall also be deemed to be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
Explanation.-For the purposes of this section,-
No suit, prosecution or other legal proceeding shall lie against the Government or any officer of the Government for anything which is in good faith done or intended to be done under this Ordinance.
(1) The Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, make rules to carry out the purposes of this Ordinance.
(2) In particular, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, such rules may provide for-