- (1.) This is a petition under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C for quashing of the complaint titled as State of Haryana through Mr. Naresh Kumar, Quality Control Inspector, Rohtak vs M/s Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar, Bhiwani Road, Meham, District Rohtak and others qua petitioners M/s Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar pending before the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Rohtak under Section 19(a) of the Seeds Act, 1966 for contravention of Section 7(b)(c) and Section 17(a) of the Seeds Act, 1966 and Sections 6 and 7 of the Seed Rules, 1968 made thereunder and all the subsequent proceedings in the said complaint No.127 dated 17.03.2010.
(2.) The facts of the case are that the petitioner No.1-Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar, Bhiwani Road, Meham, Rohtak is a registered dealer of seeds and holds a valid dealership certificate of registration/licence No.20-S dated 03.02.2009 issued by the notified authority for sale of seeds. Petitioners no.2 and 3 are one establishment carrying out the activity of distribution centre only for purposes of storing and distribution of seeds to the petitioner No.1 and other Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar outlets of the Company and hold a valid dealership certificate of registration/letter of authorization No.1048/seed/KKR dated 21.04.2009 issued by the notified authority for the purposes of storing and distributing seeds. The petitioner purchased seeds of Jowar variety SSG 555 from M/s Godavari Hybrid Seeds Company, Armoor, District Nizamabad (A.P.) vide invoice/Delivery Order No.063 dated 22.03.2009. The said M/s Godavari Hybrid Seeds Company is the producer/manufacturers of the seeds in question. The seeds, in question, admittedly produced by M/s Godavari Hybrid Seeds Company had declared the germination of the seeds of 90% and genetic purity to be 98% vide a declaration/truthful label affixed by the said producer/manufacturer on the sealed packets of seeds in question by affixing a truthful label which is placed on record as Annexure P-5. The validity/expiry of the seed was for a period upto December, 2009 when the seeds, in question, expired. The respondent-Quality Control Inspector made a surprised checking in the premises of petitioner No.1-Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar, Bhiwani Road, Meham, District Rohtak (Haryana) on 24.06.2009 and checked the stock of Jowar Seeds Variety SSG 555. Out of the three samples, the respondent sent one sealed sample to the Haryana State Seed Testing Laboratory, IADP, Karnal (Haryana) for the report of analyst and one referee sample was kept in the office of Deputy Director Agriculture, Rohtak. Thereafter, the licensing Authority-cumDeputy Director, Agriculture Office, Rohtak issued Show Cause Notice dated 12.08.2009 for selling sub-standard seeds. The petitioners replied vide reply dated 05.09.2009. Thereafter, after an inordinate delay of more than six months, the respondent filed a complaint dated 17.03.2010 alleging therein that the petitioners had sold sub-standard seeds and have committed offence under Section 19(a) of the Seeds Act, 1966.
(3.) Accordingly, notice was sent by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Rohtak. While praying for quashing of the said complaint, it was contended by learned counsel for the petitioners that as per the settled law, a statutory right has been conferred on the petitioners to get the samples retested from the Central Seeds Laboratory and the samples have to be tested by the Central Seeds Testing Laboratory before the expiry of shelf life of the sample. The present complaint has been filed on 17.03.2010 i.e much after the expiry of the sample of seeds in December 2009 and thus the valuable statutory right of the petitioners to have the sample retested/renalysed from the Central Seeds Testing Laboratory stands defeated thus seriously prejudicing the defence of the petitioners.;