Seed Production of Vegetable, Tuber and Spice Crops

Short title, extent, application and commencement

1. (1) This Act may be called the Seeds Act, 2004. (2) It extends to the whole of India . (3) Save as otherwise provided in this Act, it shall apply to- (a) every dealer; and (b) every producer of seed except when the seed is produced by him for his own use and not for sale. (4) It shall come into force on such date as the Central Government may, by notification, appoint.
Definitions.
2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, - (1) "agriculture" includes horticulture, forestry and cultivation of plantation, medicinal and aromatic plants; (2) “ Central Seed Testing Laboratory ” means the Central
Seed Testing Laboratory established or declared as such under sub-section (1) of section 32; (3) "Certification Agency" means an agency established under section 26 or accredited under section 27 or recognised under section 30; (4) “ Chairperson ” means the Chairperson of the Committee; (5) “ Committee ” means the Central Seed Committee constituted under sub-section (1) of section 3; (6) “ container ” means a box, bottle, casket, tin, barrel, case, receptacle, sack, bag, wrapper or other thing in which any article or thing is placed or packed; (7) “ dealer ” means a person who carries on the business of buying and selling, exporting, or importing seed, and includes an agent of a dealer; (8) “ export ” means taking out of India by land, sea or air; (9) “ farmer ” means any person who cultivates crops either by cultivating the land himself or through any other person but does not include any individual, company, trader or dealer who engages in the procurement and sale of seeds on a commercial basis; (10) “ horticulture nursery ” means any place where horticulture plants are, in the regular course of business, produced or propagated and sold for transplantation; (11) “ import" means bringing into India by land, sea or air; (12) “ kind ” means one or more related species or sub-species of crop plants each individually or collectively known by one common name such as cabbage, maize, paddy and wheat; (13) “ member ” means a member of the Committee ;
(14) “ misbranded ” - A seed shall be deemed to be misbranded if- (i) it is a substitute for, or resembles in a manner likely to deceive, another variety of seed under the name of which it is sold, and is not plainly and conspicuously labelled so as to indicate its true nature; (ii) it is falsely stated to be the product of any place or country; (iii) it is sold by a name which belongs to another kind or variety of seed; (iv) false claims are made for it upon the label or otherwise; (v) when sold in a package which has been sealed or prepared by, or at the instance, of the dealer and which bears his name and address, the contents of each package are not conspicuously and correctly stated on the outside thereof within the limits of variability prescribed under this Act; (vi) the package containing it, or the label on the package bears any statement, design or device regarding the quality or the kind or variety of seed contained therein, which is false or misleading in any material particular or if the package is otherwise deceptive with respect to its contents; (vii) it is not registered in the manner required by or under this Act; (viii) its label contains any reference to registration other than the registration number; (ix) its label does not contain a warning or caution which may be necessary, and sufficient, if complied with, to protect human, animal and plant life and health or to avoid serious prejudice to the environment; (x) the package containing it or the label on the package bears the name of a fictitious individual or company as the dealer of the kind or variety; or (xi) it is not labelled in accordance with the requirements of this Act or the rules made thereunder; (15) "notification" means a notification published in the Official Gazette; (16) “ prescribed ” means prescribed by rules made under this Act; (17) “ producer ” means a person, group of persons, firm or organisation who grows or organizes the production of seeds; (18) “ registered kind or variety ” , in relation to any seed, means any kind, or variety thereof, registered under section 13;
19)“ Registration Sub-Committee ” means the Registration Sub- Committee constituted under sub-section (1) of section 7; (20) “ regulation ” means a regulation made by the Committee under this Act; (21) “ seed ” means any type of living embryo or propagule capable of regeneration and giving rise to a plant of agriculture which is true to such type; (22) "Seed Analyst" means a Seed Analyst appointed under section 33; (23) "Seed Inspector" means a Seed Inspector appointed under section 34; (24) “ seed processing ” means the process by which seeds and planting materials are dried, threshed, shelled, ginned or delinted (in cotton), cleaned, graded or treated; (25) “ spurious seed ” means any seed which is not genuine or true to type; (26) “ State Government ” ,in relation to a Union territory, means the administrator thereof; (27) “ State Seed Testing Laboratory ” , in relation to any State, means the State Seed Laboratory established or declared as such under sub-section (2) of section 32 for that State; (28) “ transgenic variety ” means seed or planting material synthesized or developed by modifying or altering the genetic composition by means of genetic engineering; (29)“ variety ” means a plant grouping except micro-organism within a single botanical taxon of the lowest known rank, which can be (i) defined by the expression of the characteristics resulting from a given genotype of that plant grouping; (ii) distinguished from any other plant grouping by expression of at least one of the said characteristics; and (iii) considered as a unit with regard to its suitability for being propagated, which remains unchanged after such propagation, and includes propagating material of such variety, extant variety, transgenic variety, farmers' variety and essentially derived variety. Footnote: "essentially derived variety", in respect of a variety (the initial variety) shall be said to be essentially derived from such initial variety when it- (a) is predominantly derived from such initial variety, or from a variety that itself is predominantly derived from such initial variety, while retaining the expression of the essential characteristics that result from the genotype or combination of genotypes of such initial variety; (b) is clearly distinguishable from such initial variety; and (c) conforms (except for the differences which result from the act of derivation) to such initial variety in the expression of the essential characteristics that result from the genotype or combination of genotypes of such initial variety; Extant variety - "extant variety" means a variety available in India which is- (a) notified under section 5 of the Seeds Act, 1966; or (b) farmers' variety as defined in PVP Act; or (c) a variety about which there is common knowledge; or (d) any other variety which is in public domain.