institu: 5c no court shall take cognizance of an offence punishable tion of under this act except upon a complaint in writing made by— prosecution, a (a) the central government or the state government or any officer authorised by it in writing; or (b) the person aggrieved; or (c) a recognised consumer association, whether the person aggrieved is a member of that association or not time 10 1 of 1956explanation—for the purposes of this section, "recognised eonsumer association" means a voluntary consumer association registered under the companies act, 1956 or any other law for the being in force', ' ia:  statement of objects and reasonsthe agricultural produce (grading and marking) act, 1937 provides for the grading and marking of agricultural and other allied commodities with the objectives of making available quality agricultural produce including horticulture and livestock produce to the consumers under this act, the central government has been authorised to make rules fixing grade designation to indicate the quality of any scheduled article, defining the quality indicated by every grade designation; specifying grade designation mark to represent particular grade designation; authorising interested parties to grade; specifying conditions regarding manner of marking, packaging ete and providing for the confiscation and disposal of produce marked otherwise than in accordance with the prescribed conditions with a grade designation mark the insignia used for grading is 'agmark' grading under this act is purely voluntary in nature despite the elaborate procedures prescribed in the rules under the act, complaints have been received about the quality of agmarked goods 2 with a view to protect the interests of the consumers and to ensure that there is no misgrading of articles, the folowing major amendments are proposed: - (a) misgraded article is proposed to be defined as one not of the quality prescribed for the grade designation with which it is marked; (b) the punishment prescribed under sections 4 and 5 of the act for unauthorised or improper marking with grade designation mark and counterfeiting grade designation mark is proposed to be increased from rs 500 as fine to a penalty of imprisonment upto six months and fine up to rs 5,000 and from the existing penalty of imprisonment upto two years or fine or both to imprisonment upto three years and 'fine up to rs 5,000 respectively; (c) it is also proposed to impose a fine not exceeding rs 5,000: and imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months for selling or distributing misgraded articles or articles not conforming to the prescribed grade or standard;  (d) it is proposed to empower the central government to introduce compulsory grading with respect to commodities where such grading is deemed to be in the public interest and for the protection of consumers, the compulsory grading is proposed to be introduced in respect of any article or class of articles notified for any specific area or areas, the penalty proposed to be imposed for contravention of this provision is imprisonment upto six months and fine up to rs 5,000; (e) no court shall take cognizance of the offence - punishable under this act except upon a complaint in writing made by central government, state government, any officer authorised to do so, and also by recognised consumer associations and the aggrieved person; (f) it is also proposed that powers of inspection, search and seizures may also be vested in officers belonging to central government, or state government or other authorities authorised by the central government 3 the bill seeks to achieve the above objects and to make some other consequential and clarificatory amendments in the act new deu; ramanand yadav the 2nd december, 1986 memorandum regarding delegated legislationclause 2 of the bill proposes to insert a new clause (j) in section 2 of the agricultural produce (grading and marking) act, 1937, so as_ to define misgraded article such article will be considered to be misgraded if the article is not of the quality prescribed by rules for the grade designation with which it is marked, where the composition of the article offered for grading is altered after a sample has been drawn for analysis and determination of the grade designation of the article in accordance with the rules framed under the act and where false claim is made for the quality prescribed for the grade designation of the article upon the label or: through advertisement or in any other manner, 2 clause 4 of the bil] proposes to insert new sections 3a and 3b in the act sub-section (1) of section 3b proposes 'to empower an officer authorised under sub-section (1) of section 3a to seize and detain any agricultural produce in relation to which an offence under the act or the rules made thereunder has been committed the manner of disposal of the agricultural produce, where such produce is subject to speedy or natural decay, will be prescribed by rules, clause 3 of the bill proposes to amend section 3 of the act which empowers the central government to make rules to carry out the provisions of the act so as to enable that government to make rules for the purposes covered by the aforesaid new provisions 3 the matters in respect of which the said rules may be made are essentially matters of detail or procedure the delegation of legislative power is, therefore, of a normal character annexure extracts from the agricultural produce (grading and marketing) act, 1937 (1 of 1937)$\frac{\partial}{\partial t}$explana- 2 in this act, unless the contrary appears from the subject or context tions $\frac{1}{2}$(h) "scheduled article' means an article included in the schedule; and prescrip- 3 (1) the central government may, after previous publication by notification in the official gazette, make rules— tion of grade designation (a) fixing grade designations to indicate the quality of any scheduled article; $\frac{\partial\phi}{\partial t}$(2) every rule made by the central government under this act shall 'be laid, as soon as may be after it is made, before each house of parliament, while it is in session, for a total period of thirty days which may _be comprised in one-session or in two or more successive sessions, and if, before the expiry of the session immediately following the session or the successive sessions aforesaid, both houses agree in making any modification in the rule or both houses agree that the rule should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however: that any such modification or annulment shall not without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule 4 whoever marks any scheduled article with a grade design nation mark, not being authorised to do so by rule made under section 3, shall be punishable with fine which may extend to five hundred rupees penalty for unauthorised marking with grade designation mark, penalty for counterfeit- 5 whoever counterfeits any grade designation mark or has in his possession any die, plate or other instrument for the purpose of counterfeiting a grade designation mark shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both ing grade designation mark,     