Compensate farmers for defective seeds: HC to seed maker
The Bombay High Court has asked a seed manufacturing company to pay compensation of Rs 45 lakh to 164 farmers in Maharashtra for supplying defective seeds as a result of which the crop quality suffered.
December 16, 2012 / 20:37 IST
The Bombay High Court has asked a seed manufacturing company to pay compensation of Rs 45 lakh to 164 farmers in Maharashtra for supplying defective seeds as a result of which the crop quality suffered. The high court ordered the compensation while upholding an order of the Controller and Director of Agriculture which asked Bayer Bio Science Pvt Ltd to pay the compensation.
The company had challenged the order before the appellate authority which too upheld the order of Agriculture Director dated April 13, 2011. By that order, the said authority has found 164 farmers entitled to compensation and asked the company to pay that amount within 30 days at 24 per cent interest under rule 12(9) of Maharashtra Cotton Seeds (Regulation of supply, distribution, sale and fixation of sale price) Rules, 2010. The high court held that Seed Inspector and District Level Investigation Committee functioning under the Act and Rules have discharged their obligation within four corners of law."The Controller has looked into entire relevant material and thereafter ordered compensation to be paid to the farmers. In appeal, this exercise has been upheld. Both the authorities have looked into entire material produced before them. There is no perversity in the findings recorded", noted Justice BP Dharmadhikari in his order on December 11."Similarly, there is no jurisdictional error. There are no allegations of bias or malafides. The impugned orders are, thus, in conformity with the scheme and spirit of 2009 Act and 2010 Rules. No case is, therefore, made out for interference in writ jurisdiction. Petition is dismissed", the judge noted. The impugned order of April 13, 2011, revealed that the company had disclosed in its leaflet the possibility of occurrence of Alterneria Leaf Blight disease in small percentage.Hence, a question was put by the said authority to its representative as to what company meant by small percentage to which Bayer disclosed that it meant impact on about 5 per cent of the crop without affecting average yield. During inspection, the disease was found on about 40 to 70 per cent of plants and because of it growth of plants was stunted, the yield was reduced and this inference was accepted by the representative of the company.The company's representative also accepted that calculation of compensation was also correct and acceptable to the company. The fact that largescale disease resulted in damage was also accepted. However, the representative urged that farmers did not adopt the protective measures advised by the company and the disease occurred only in the year 2008. The company sold 40,000 seed bags and impact was noticed only on about 500 packets and 164 farmers. This itself, according to the said representative, was on account of weather conditions. The representative also accepted that the commercial bags of cotton seeds sold to farmers were available and would be supplied to District Superintending Agriculture Officer at Dhule.Bayer Bio Science had challenged the impugned order on the grounds that no inspection was carried out by the authorities within seven days as required by the provisions of rule 12. It argued that no independent sample of defective seeds was procured by the said authorities. The Company further argued that the authorities did not obtain any report of analyst. The finding that cotton seeds sold by the petitioner were substandard or misbranded is misconceived as there was no label on the sold product that it was immune and therefore there was no misbranding. Bayer Bio Science also argued that the compensation as worked out is arbitrary and exorbitant. Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
