(1) No person shall sell, keep for sale, offer to sell, barter or otherwise supply any seed of any notified kind or variety, after the date recorded on the container, mark or label as the date upto which the seed may be expected to retain the germination not less than that prescribed under clause (a) of section 6 of the Act.
(2) No person shall after, obliterate or deface any mark or label attached to the container of any seed.
(3) Every person selling, keeping for sale, offering to sell, bartering or otherwise supplying any seed of notified kind or variety under section 7, shall keep over a period of three years a complete record of each lot of seed sold except that any seed sample may be discarded one year after the entire lot represented by such sample has been disposed of. The sample of seed kept as part of the complete record shall be as large as the size notified in the official Gazette. This sample, if required to be tested, shall be tested only for determining the purity.
(14) Classes and sources of certified seed. – (1) There shall be three classes of certified seed, namely, foundations, registered and certified and each class shall meet the following standards for that class:-(a) Foundation seed shall be the progeny of breeders’ seed, or be produced from foundation seed which can be clearly traced to breeder’s seed. Production shall be supervised and approved by a seed certification agency and be so handled as to maintain specific genetic purity and identify and shall be required to meet certification standards for the crop being certified.
(b) Registered seed shall be the progeny of foundation seed that is so handled as to maintain its genetic identity and purity according to standard specified for the particular crop being certified.
(c) Certified seed shall be the progeny of registered or foundation seed that is so handled to maintain genetic identity and purity according to standards specified for the particular crop being certified.
(2) At the discretion of the certification agency (when considered necessary to maintain adequate seed supplies) certified seed may be the progeny of certified seed provided this reproduction may not exceed three generations and provided further that it is determined by the seed certification agency, that the genetic purity will not be significantly altered.
PART VII – Certification of Seeds