Chapter VIII Chapter VIII

(2) When the affairs of a market committee are inquired into, all members, officers and servants of the committee shall furnish such information and produce such documents in their possession, relating to the affairs of the committee, as the Director or the officer may require. (3) The Director and the officer shall have the power to summon and enforce the attendance of members and officers of the market committee and to compel them to give evidence and to produce documents by the same means and as far as possible in the same manner as is provided in the case of a Civil Court by the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. (4) The Director or, as the case may be, the officer may require the market committee either as a result of the inquiry or otherwise to do a thing or to abstain from doing a thing which the Director or the officer considers necessary for the purposes of this Act, and to send a written reply to him within a reasonable time, stating whether the aforesaid requisition is complied and in case it is not complied, stating its reason for not complying with the requisition.

(1) Where the Director on a complaint made to him or otherwise is satisfied that a market committee has made default in performing any duty imposed on it by or under this Act, he may fix a period for its due performance. (2) If the duty be not performed within the period so fixed, the Director may appoint a person to perform it, and may direct that the expense of performing it and the reasonable remuneration of such person shall be forthwith paid by the committee. (3) If the expense and remuneration be not so paid, the Director may make an order directing the bank in which any moneys of the committee are deposited or the person in charge of any place of security in which the moneys of the committee are deposited to pay such expense and remuneration from moneys standing to the credit of the committee in such bank or in the hands of such person or such moneys as may from time to time be received from or on behalf of the committee by way of deposit by such bank or person; and such bank or person shall be bound to obey such order. Every payment made pursuant to such order shall be efficient di charge for such bank or person from all liability to the committee in respect of any sums so paid by it or him.

(1) “If in the opinion of the State Government a market committee is not competent to perform or persistently makes default in performing the duties imposed on it by or under this Act or abuses its powers, the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, supersede such market committee : Provided that before issuing a notification under this sub-section, the State Government shall give a reasonable opportunity to the market committee for showing cause why it should not be superseded and shall consider the explanation and objections, if any, of the market committee. (2) Upon the publication of a notification under sub-section (1) supersed- ing a market committee the following consequences shall ensue, namely:— (i) all the members as well as the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the market committee shall as from the date of such publication be deemed to have vacated their respective offices. (ii) The State Government may at its discretion, either order that a new market committee be constituted under section 11 or make such arrangements for carrying out the functions of the market committee, as it may think fit ; and (iii) all the assets vesting in the market committee shall, subject to all its liabilities, vest in the State Government. (3) If the State Government makes an order under clause (ii) of sub-section (2), it shall transfer the assets and liabilities of the market committee as on the date of such transfer, to the new market committee constituted under section 11 or to the person or persons, if any, appointed for carrying out the functions of the market committee, as the case may be. (4) If the State Government does not make such an order, it shall transfer all the assets of the market committee which remain after the satisfaction of all its liabilities, to the State Agricultural Produce Markets Fund constituted under section 34. The Director shall utilise such assets for such object in the area as he considers to be for the benefit of the agriculturists in that area.

(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act or rules of by-laws made thereunder, if at any time it appears to the State Government that a market committee has not been validly constituted under this Act, the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, make a declaration to that effect and thereupon exercise the powers conferred on it under sub-section (5) of section 11 as if the term of the market committee and expired on the date of such declaration. (2) On the issue of such notification, all the members as well as the Chairman and Voce-Chairman of the market committee shall be deemed to have vacated their respective offices and the market committee shall be reconstituted before the expiry of period specified in the order under clause (a) of sub-section (5) of section 11. (3) Where a market committee, after its being liable to be reconstituted by reason of the expiry of its term or otherwise under the provisions of this Act. continues to function as before and the members as well as the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the market committee continue to hold their office, it shall be lawful for the State Government to take action under sub-section (1) in respect of such market committee as if it were the market committee not validly constituted under this Act.

The Director shall have power— (a) to call for any proceedings of a market committee or an extract therefrom, any book or document in the possession or under the control of a market committee and any return, statement, account or report which the Director thinks fit to require such market committee to furnish; and (b) to require a market committee to take into consideration— (i) any objection which appears to the Director to exist to the doing of anything which is about to be done, or is being done, by such market committee; or (ii) any information which the Director is able to furnish, and which appears to the Director to necessitate the doing of anything by the market committee, and to make a written reply to the Director within a reasonable time stating its reasons for not doing or Hot desisting from doing anything.

The State Government may at any time call for and examine the proceeding of the Director or of any market committee for the purpose of satisfying itself as to the legality or propriety of any decision or order passed by the Director or the market committee. In any case in which it appears to the State Government that any decision or order or proceedings so called for should be modified, annulled or reversed, the State Government may pass such order thereon as it thinks fit.