Section 9 in The Organic Agricultural Produce Grading and Marking Rules, 2009
9. Certificate of Authorisation to Accredited Inspection and Certification Agencies.
(1)Any accredited Inspection and Certification Agency under the National Programme for Organic Production as published in the said notification, shall be eligible to apply for seeking Certificate of Authorisation under these rules or a renewal thereof by filing an application in Form-1 to an officer of the Directorate of Marketing and Inspection authorised by the Agricultural Marketing Adviser along with the specified fee and the following documents:(a)Documentary evidence of the organisation, financial status (turnover), annual report and number of employees along with their bio-data.(b)Details of the certification committees, standards committees, inspectors etc,(c)A copy of the operating manual and the quality manual.(d)Tariff proposed.(e)Documentary evidence of authorisation by any other country or agency.(f)A davit in Form-2.(g)The applications shall be signed by the head of the organisation, partner, director, managing trustee, duly authorised for the purpose and the documentary evidence or power of attorney or copy of the resolution, as the case may be.(2)The Authorised Inspection and Certification Agency shall pay such charges or fee as may be specified by the Central Government from time to time towards the expenses incurred in connection with the -(a)grant and periodical renewal of Certificate of Authorisation;(b)issue of duplicate Certificate of Authorisation;(c)training of Chemists employed by the authorised packer;(d)measures for enforcing the quality control of scheduled articles marked with grade designation mark including testing of samples and inspection of such articles;(e)with any publicity work carried out to promote the sale of any class of articles.(3)An Authorised Inspection and Certification Agency shall be granted a certificate of authorisation under these rules, which shall be non-transferable.(4)Updation and renewal of authorisation - The Authorised Inspection and Certification Agency shall undergo an updating procedure on the lines similar to the initial authorisation procedure for renewal of certificate of authorisation:(a)The Agricultural Marketing Adviser shall renew the certificate for a block of three years on payment of a specified fee to be paid along with the application for renewal, which shall be filed by the Inspection and Certification Agency at least thirty days before the expiry of the validity period of the certificate of authorisation.(b)Application for renewal of authorisation along with the fees shall be submitted by the Inspection and Certification Agency to reach the Officer authorised by Agricultural Marketing Adviser for this purpose, thirty days before the expiry of authorisation period.(c)The Agricultural Marketing Adviser shall, however, have the power to condone any delay in submitting the said renewal application, in the event of a reasonable cause shown for the same.(d)The renewal of the Certificate for Authorisation shall be based on the past performance of the accredited Inspection and Certification Agency and the Agricultural Marketing Adviser shall have the right to reject such applications.(e)In the event of rejection of an application for renewal, the Agricultural Marketing Adviser shall furnish the reasons for such rejections, in writing.(f)The Appeal Committee constituted under sub-rule (1) of rule 14 shall be the appellate authority for deciding any appeal filed on account of any such rejection and the decision of Appeal Committee on an appeal shall be final and binding on all concerned.(g)The Agricultural Marketing Adviser shall be the Competent Authority for receiving and processing all appeals and submitting the same before the Appeal Committee for appropriate decisions.(5)Power to Issue Guidelines - The Agricultural Marketing Adviser, shall have the powers to issue necessary guidelines to the certification agencies for inspection and certification process, from time to time.(6)The Agricultural Marketing Adviser will issue a Certificate of Authorisation, containing the following details:(a)Certificate of Authorisation Number;(b)the name and address of the Inspection and Certification Agency;(c)the nature of the activities covered;(d)the date of issue and date of expiry.(7)The Authorised Inspection and Certification Agencies shall ensure compliance of the standards for Organic Production and various other procedures including the procedure of inspections, certification, implementation of Internal Control System, external inspections, evaluation of Internal Control System, grant of license etc., prescribed under the National Programme for Organic production as published in the said notification.(8)In addition to the conditions specified in sub-rule (8) of rule 3 of the General Grading and Marking Rules, 1988 and Organic Agricultural Produce Grading and Marking Rules, 2009, every authorised packer shall follow the instructions issued by Agricultural Marketing Adviser from time to time.
