Raw Cashewnuts (Procurement and Distribution) Act, 1981

No: 14 Dated: Apr, 02 1981

Raw Cashewnuts (Procurement and Distribution) Act, 1981

(Act 14 or 1981)

    An Act to provide for the trade in raw cashewnuts by the State to the exclusion of all others by the procurement and sale thereof at fair prices

    Preamble:- WHEREAS by judgment dated the 23rd .January, 1981, tha Supreme Court has quashed the declaration made by the Government of Kerala to the effect that raw cashewnut is an essential article under the Kerala Essential Articles Control (Temporary Powers) Act, 1961 and thr Kerala Raw Cashewnut (Procurement and Distribution) Order, 1977, made under that Act ;

    AND WHEREAS raw cashewnut is an essential raw material for the cashew industry which is one of the most important traditional industries in the State ;

    AND WHEREAS the maintenance of supplies of raw cashewnuts is essential for the continued employment of about one and a half lakhs workers employed in more than two hundred and fifty cashew factories in the State ;

    AND WHEREAS unemployment of the workers employed in the cashew factories in the State will adversely affect the economy of the State;

    AND WHEREAS the quantity of imported raw cashewnuts made available to the factories in the State as dwindled down considerably and consequently the quantity of imported raw cashewnut is not sufficient to give more then seven days work in an year to the workers in the cashew industry in the State;

    AND WHEREAS, in the circumstances, it is considered necessary to provide that trade in taw cashewnuts within the State should be undertaken by the State to the exclusion of all others by the procurement and sale thereof in fair prices ;

BE it enacted in the Thirty-second Year of the Republic of lndia as follows:-

1. Short title, extent and commencement.- (I) This Act may be called the Kerala Raw Cashewnuts (Procurement and Distribution) Act, 1981. 

(2) It extends to the whole of the State of Kerala. 

(3) It shall be deemed to have come into force on the 2nd day of February, 1981.

2. Definitions.-In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-

(a) ''agent'' means the agent authorised under sub-section (1) of section 3;

(b) ''competent authority" mems the Government or an officer authorised by the Governmert to grant permits;

(c) "co-oprative society" mean a society registered or deemed to be registered under the Kerala Co-operative Socielies Act, 1969 (21 of 1969);

(d) "cultivator" means a person who actually cultivates any land with cashew or who is entitled to take the usufructs from any land cultivated with cashew;

(e) "notified price''  in relation to raw cashewnuts, means the price notified under sub-section (2) of fection 5;

(f) "occupier'' means an occupier as defined in the Factories Act, 1948 (Central Act 63 of 1948);

(g) "person" includes a body corporate, a company, a firm, an association of individuals or a co-operative society;

(h) "permit' means a permit referred to in section 15;

(i) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;

(j) ''raw cashewnut" does not include roasted cashewnut;

(k) "State" means the State of Kerala;

(l) "sub-agent'' means a co-operative society appointed by the agent unrder section 9.