FERTILIZERS

(1) Every person who sells for use as a fertilizer of the soil any article manufactured or prepared in Ceylon or imported from abroad shall give to the purchaser an invoice stating the name of the article and whether it is an artificially compounded article or not, and what is at least the percentage of the nitrogen, soluble and insoluble phosphates, and potash, if any, contained in the article, and this invoice shall have effect as a warranty by the seller of the statements contained therein.

(2) For the purposes of this section an article shall be deemed to be manufactured if it has been subjected to any artificial process.

(3) This section shall not apply to a sale where the whole amount sold at the same time weighs less than one hundredweight.

(1) If any person who sells any article for use as a fertilizer of the soil commits any of the following offences, namely : –

(2) In any proceeding for an offence under this section it shall be no defence to allege that the buyer, having only bought for analysis, was not prejudiced by the sale.

(3) Any person alleged to have committed an offence under this section in respect of an article sold by him shall be entitled to the same rights and remedies, civil or criminal, against the person from whom he bought the article as are available to the person who bought the article from him, and any damages recovered by him may, if the circumstances justify it, include the amount of any fine and costs paid by him on conviction under this section, and the costs of and incidental to his defence on such conviction.

(1) Every buyer of an article used for fertilizing the soil shall, on payment to an agricultural analyst of a fee sanctioned by the Minister with the concurrence of the Minister of Finance,[1] be entitled within ten days after delivery of the article to the buyer, or receipt of the invoice by the buyer, whichever is later, to have the article analysed by the analyst, and to receive from him a certificate of the result of his analysis.

(2) Where a buyer of an article desires to have the article analysed in pursuance of this section, he shall, in accordance with regulations made by the Minister,[1] take three samples of the article, and shall, in accordance with the said regulations, cause each sample to be marked, sealed, and fastened up, and shall deliver or send by post one sample with the invoice or copy thereof to an agricultural analyst, and shall give another sample to the seller, and shall retain the third sample for future comparison :

Provided that an agricultural analyst, or some person authorized by him in that behalf with the approval of the Minister shall, on request either by the buyer or the seller, and on payment of a fee sanctioned by the Minister with the concurrence of the Minister of Finance,[1] take the samples on behalf of the buyer.

(3) The certificate of the agricultural analyst shall be in such form and contain such particulars as are directed in the Schedule and every agricultural analyst shall carefully enter in a register to be kept for that purpose the result of any analysis made by him in pursuance of this Ordinance.

(4) If the seller or the buyer objects to the certificate of the agricultural analyst not being the chief agricultural analyst, one of the samples selected, or another sample selected in like manner, may, at the request of the seller, or, as the case may be, the buyer, be submitted with the invoice or a copy thereof to the chief agricultural analyst, and the seller, or, as the case may be, the buyer, shall, on payment of a fee sanctioned by the Minister with the concurrence of the Minister of Finance,[1] be entitled to have the sample analysed by the chief agricultural analyst, and to receive from him a certificate of the result of his analysis.

(5) At the hearing of any civil or criminal proceeding with respect to any article analysed in pursuance of this section, the production of a certificate of an agricultural analyst shall be sufficient evidence of the facts therein stated, unless the defendant or the person charged requires that the analyst be called as a witness.

(6) The cost of and incidental to the obtaining of any analysis in pursuance of this section shall be borne by the seller or the buyer in accordance with the results of the analysis, and shall be recoverable as a simple contract debt.

(a) tampers with any parcel of fertilizer so as to procure that any sample of it taken in pursuance of this Ordinance does not correctly represent the contents of the parcel; or

(b) tampers with any sample taken under this Ordinance,

(1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any enactment contained, the Magistrate’s Court within whose jurisdiction any offence against this Ordinance is committed shall be empowered to hear, try, and determine the prosecution for such offence, and to award the punishment prescribed by this Ordinance.

(2) Any person aggrieved by a conviction under this Ordinance may appeal to the Supreme Court.

(1) The Minister[1] may, from time to time make regulations for the taking of samples and for the marking, sealing, and fastening up of the same, and such regulations he may revoke, amend, or alter.

(2) All regulations when so made, revoked, amended, or altered shall be published in two successive issues of the Gazette in the English language, and shall be laid before the Senate and the House of Representatives if Parliament is then in session,[1] and if not then in session, then so soon as possible after the commencement of the next ensuing session, and if within forty days after their being so laid before the Senate and the House of Representatives[1] any of such regulations be objected to by the Senate or the House of Representatives[1] the Senate or the House of Representatives[1] may by resolution amend or annul any such regulations. All regulations so amended and such regulations as shall not be amended or annulled by the Senate or the House of Representatives[1] shall be proclaimed in two successive issues of the Gazette in the English language, and shall come into force upon such proclamation in the Gazette, and shall thereupon be as legal, valid, effectual, and binding as if the same had been inserted in this Ordinance.