Defective seeds - Supply of - Failure of the crops/less yield - Compensation awarded.

Consumer - Seeds Act, 1966 - Provisions of - Whether applicable - Whether the Seeds Act is a special legislation vis-a-vis the Consumer Act and the District Forums could not have entertained and decided the complaints filed by the respondents because they could seek redressal of their grievance regarding the quality of seeds sold by the appellant by lodging complaint with the concerned Seed Inspectors with a request for taking action under Section 19 read with Section 21 of the Seeds Act - Whether the growers of seeds were not entitled to file complaint under the Consumer Act and the only remedy available to them for the alleged breach of the terms of agreement was to apply for arbitration - Whether the District Forum committed a jurisdictional error by awarding compensation to the respondents without complying with the procedure prescribed under Section 13(1)(c) - To consider - Though, the Seeds Act is a special legislation enacted for ensuring that there is no compromise with the quality of seeds sold to the farmers and provisions have been made for imposition of substantive punishment on a person found guilty of violating the provisions relating to the quality of the seeds, however, the Seeds Act is totally silent on the issue of payment of compensation for the loss of crop on account of use of defective seeds supplied - The remedy of arbitration is not the only remedy available to a grower - Rather, it is an optional remedy - The reports of the agricultural experts unmistakably revealed that the crops had failed because of defective seeds/foundation seeds, thus, the procedure adopted by the District Forum was in no way contrary to Section 13(1)(c) - The Supreme Court held that since the farmers/growers purchased seeds by paying a price to the appellant, they certainly fall within the ambit of Section 2(d)(i) of the Consumer Act - Appeals dismissed.

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Important Decision(s)-Defective seeds - Supply of - Failure of the crops/less yield - Compensation awarded.