SC directs National Seeds Corporation to compensate farmers

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed a state-run company to compensate farmers for supplying defective seeds to them. The court rejected the plea of National Seeds Corporation that it was not liable to pay compensation as it was governed by the provisions of the Seeds Act 1966 and not the Consumer Protection Act 1986.

A bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly said there is nothing in Seeds Act that indicates that provisions of the Consumer Act do not apply to farmers, who are covered under the wide definition of 'consumer' under Section 2(d) of the CPA. In fact, any attempt to exclude farmers from the ambit of the Consumer Act by implication will make the Seeds Act "vulnerable to an attack of unconstitutionality on the ground of discrimination".

It dismissed a bunch of appeals of the company saying the disputes between it and the farmers were regulated by the provisions of the Seeds Act, 1966. The bench, however, pointed out that though the Seeds Act had provisions on imposition of punishment on a person found guilty selling substandard seeds, the legislature has not put in place any adjudicatory mechanism for compensating farmers.