West Bengal Horticultural Nurseries (Regulation) Act, 2001
No: 31 Dated: Jul, 31 2002
THE WEST BENGAL HORTICULTURAL NURSERIES (REGULATION) ACT, 2001
West Bengal Act XXXI of 2001
An Act to provide for the licensing and regulation of horticultural nurseries in West Bengal.
WHEREAS it is expedient to provide for the licensing and regulation of horticultural nurseries in West Bengal;
It is hereby enacted in the Fifty-second Year of the Republic of India, by the Legislature of West Bengal, as follows:-
1. Short title, extent and commencement:- (1) This Act may be called the West Bengal Horticultural Nurseries (Regulation) Act, 2001.
(2) It extends to the whole of West Bengal.
(3) It shall come into force on such date as the State Government may, by notification, appoint.
2. Definitions:- In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—
(a) "competent authority" means any officer appointed as such under section 4;
(b) "Director" means the Director of Food Processing Industries and Horticulture, Government of West Bengal;
(c) "horticultural nursery" means a place where horticultural plant is, in the regular course of business, propagated or sold for transplantation or sowing;
(d) "notification" means a notification published in the Official Gazette;
(e) "nurseryman" means a person engaged in the production and sale of horticultural plant or horticultural seed or horticultural plant material;
(f) "plant material" means the material used for propagation and raising of horticultural plant, and includes bud wood, scion, root-stock, sucker, root, seed, cutting, seedlings, tubers, bulbs, rhizomes, grafts, gooties, other vegetatively propagated materials of food crops including vegetables, fruits and flowers.
Explanation.—"scion" or "bud wood" shall mean the part of a plant used for grafting or budding a root-stock or tree;
(g) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(h) "root-stock" means a fruit plant or part thereof on which any other plant or part thereof has been grafted or budded;
(i) "variety" means a sub-division of a kind identifiable by growth, yield, plant, fruits or other characteristics.
3. Horticultural nurseries not to be established or maintained without registration and licence:- (1) On and from the date of commencement of this Act, no person shall,—
(a) establish or conduct a horticultural nursery, without being registered with the competent authority and without obtaining a licence under this Act, or
(b) sell, or exchange, or offer or expose for sale, or consign for sale, any variety of horticultural plants material, by himself or by any person on his behalf, unless, such variety is identifiable and properly labelled containing the correct particulars of that kind or variety.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), a nurseryman, who owns and possesses a horticultural nursery immediately before the date of commencement of this Act, may continue to conduct such horticultural nursery,—
(a) for a period of three months from the date of commencement of this Act, or
(b) if an application for registration and licence is made to the competent authority within the period specified in clause (a) in accordance with the provisions of section 5, till the disposal of such application.
(3) Where any person or nurseryman, who owns and possesses a horticultural nursery, intends to establish or, as the case may be, to conduct more than one horticultural nursery, he shall obtain a separate licence in respect of each horticultural nursery.
4. Appointment of competent authority:- The State Government may, by notification,—
(a) appoint any officer in horticultural discipline to be the competent authority for the purposes of this Act; and
(b) define the local limits within which the competent authority shall exercise the powers conferred, and perform the duties imposed, on him by or under this Act.
5. Application for registration and licence:- Every application for registration and licence under section 3 shall be made to the competent authority in such form, and accompanied by such fee, as may be prescribed.