Chapter VI MISCELLANEOUS

(1) An appeal against any order of the prescribed authority refusing to grant or renew a licence or suspending or cancelling any such licence in respect of a warehouseman or weigher, sampler or grader or against any other order of the prescribed authority shall be made to such authority and within such time as may be prescribed. (2) The decision of such appellate authority shall be final.

Where any licence is suspended or cancelled under this Act, the licensee shall not be entitled to any compensation therefor, nor shall he be entitled to the refund of any fee paid by him for the licence.

(1) If a warehouseman fails to comply with, or contravenes any of the terms or conditions of, his licence or of any provision of this Act, then, without prejudice to any other penalty to which he may be subject, the amount of security deposited by him under a bond executed by him under the provisions of this Act shall be liable to be forfeited, and the amount due under such bond shall be recoverable from him, or from his sureties or their heirs or legal representatives, as an arrear of land revenue. (2) The State Government may make payment out of the amount so forfeited or recovered, to any person who may have sustained loss by reason of the warehouseman failing to comply with, or acting in contravention of, any terms or conditions of his licence or of any provision of this Act.

Every contract or agreement which is inconsistent with the provisions of this Act or the rules shall, to the extent of such inconsistency, be void.

In respect of goods warehoused under this Act to which the provisions of the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944, are applicable, every warehouseman or depositor shall comply with the provisions of the said Act and the rules and notifications issued thereunder in, so far as they are applicable to such goods.

(1) Whoever, fails to comply with, or acts in contravention of, any provision of this Act shall be deemed to commit an offence under this Act, and shall, on conviction, be punished,- (a) in the case of a contravention of the provisions of section 3 or 20, with penalty which may extend to Rs. 10,000; (b) in any other case with fine which may extend to Rs. 1,000. (2) (a) Where an offence under sub-section (1) is committed by a company, the company, as well as every person in charge of, and responsible to, the company for the conduct of its business at the time of the commission of the offence shall be deemed to be guilty of the offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly: Provided that, nothing contained in this clause shall render any such person liable to any punishment if he proves that the offence was committed without his knowledge or that he exercised due diligence to prevent the commission of such offence. (b) Notwithstanding anything contained in clause (a), where an offence under sub-section (1) has been committed by a company and it is proved that the offence has been committed with the consent or connivance of, or that the commission of the offence is attributable to any neglect on the part of, any Director, Manager, Secretary or other officer of the company, such Director, Manager, Secretary or other officer shall also be deemed to be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly. Explanation.—For the purposes of this sub-section,- (i) a company means any body corporate and includes a firm or other association of individuals; and (ii) “director” in relation to a firm means a partner in the firm.

(1) The State Government may, by notification, and after previous publication, make rules to carry out the purposes of this Act. (2) In particular and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, such rules may add any article to, or omit any article from the Schedule, or provide for,- (a) the matters expressly required or allowed by this Act to be prescribed; (b) the conditions to be inserted in licences to be granted to warehousemen and the form of such licences; (c) the publication of the grant, suspension or cancellation of licences to warehousemen and of consolidated lists of warehousemen and licensed warehouses; (d) the charges to be levied by the warehousemen for their services; (e) the books, accounts and records to be maintained by warehousemen; (f) the conduct of public auctions for the sale of goods deteriorating or about to deteriorate in licensed warehouses and the manner in which the proceeds of such sales shall be accounted for; (g) the scales of losses and gains of weight or bulk which may be sustained by goods owing to shrinkage or dryage in the one case and owing to absorption of moisture in the other; (h) the disinfection of licensed warehouses and the disinfection of goods stored therein; (i) the efficient conduct generally of the business of warehousemen; (j) the qualifications to be possessed by persons applying for grant of licences as weighers, samplers or graders; the conditions to be inserted in their licences; the form of the certificates to be issued by them and the grounds on which the licences may be suspended or cancelled; (k) the standard weights, measures and gradations of goods to be used in licensed warehouses; (l) the authority to which and the time within which an appeal under section 29 should be made; (m) the manner of giving notices under this Act. (3) Every rule made under this Act, shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is made before each House of the State Legislature while it is in session for a total period of thirty days which may be comprised in one session or in two successive sessions, and if before the expiry of the session in which it is so laid or the session immediately following, 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 be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule.

Nothing contained in this Act shall apply to any warehouse appointed or licensed under the provisions of the Sea Customs Act, 1878 (Central Act VIII of 1878), the Inland Bonded Warehouses Act, 1896 (Central Act VIII of 1896), the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 (Central Act 1 of 1944) or the rules made thereunder.

The Bombay Warehouses Act, 1947 (Bombay Act LVI of 1947), as in force in the Belgaum Area, the Coorg Warehouses Act, 1956 (Coorg Act V of 1956), as in force in the Coorg District, the Hyderabad Warehouses Regulation, 1358 F (Hyderabad Regulation XLVI of 1358 Fasli), as in force in the Gulbarga Area, the Madras Warehouses Act, 1951 (Madras Act XV of 1951), as in force in the Mangalore and Kollegal Area, the Madras Warehouses Act, 1951 (Madras Act XV of 1951), as in force in the Bellary District and the Mysore Warehouses Act, 1951 (Mysore Act XXIX of 1951), as in force in the Mysore Area are hereby repealed: Provided that section 6 of the Karnataka General Clauses Act, 1899 (Karnataka Act III of 1899), shall be applicable in respect of the repeal of the said enactments and sections 8 and 24 of the said Act shall be applicable as if the repealed enactments had been repealed and re-enacted by this Act.