[Act 13 of 1857] [6th june, 1857] Repealed by Act 61 of 1985 Passed
by the Legislative Council of India. (Received the assent of the Governor General on the 6th june 1857.) An
Act to consolidate and, amend the law relating
to the cultivation of the Poppy and the manufacture of Opium in the Presidency
of Fort William in Bengal. Whereas the
existing law relating to the cultivation of the Poppy and the manufacture of
Opium on account of Government is in some respects inconsistent with the
practice which now obtains under agreement between the Opium Agents and the
cultivators, and it is expedient that such inconsistency should be removed; and
whereas it is also expedient that certain obsolete Regulations relating to the
provision of Opium should be formally repealed, and that the laws for
preventing the illicit cultivation of the Poppy, and for regulating the
cultivation of the Poppy and the manufacture of Opium on account of Government,
should he consolidated and amended: It is enacted as follows:? Regulation XXXII. 1793,
Regulation XXXII. 1795, Regulation LIIX. 1795, Sections I to XL of Regulation
XIII. 1816, and Clauses 1 to 5 Section XVIII and Sections XXIII and XXIV of
Regulation VII. 1824, of the Bengal Code, are hereby repealed, except so far as
they repeal the whole or part of any other Regulation, and except as to acts
done, offences committed, and liabilities incurred, before the passing of this
Act. The cultivation of the Poppy
and the manufacture facture of Opium within the territories under the
Presidency of Fort William in Bengal, except on account of Government, are
hereby prohibited. The Superintendence of the
provision of Opium for Government shall be intrusted to Agents, or other
Officers, being covenanted servants of the Company, duly appointed by
Government in that behalf, who shall perform the duties connected therewith
under the control and direction of the Board of Revenue in Calcutta. The
Agents, or other Officers as aforesaid, shall he assisted by Deputy Agents and
Sub-deputy Agents, or such other Officers, covenanted or uncovenanted, as the
Government may from time to time appoint for the purpose. The Collector of the
District shall ordinarily, and unless Government shall otherwise direct,
be ex-officio Deputy
Agent; and the relative duties and powers of the Deputy Agents and Sub-deputy
Agents shall be from time to time regulated by the said Board with the sanction
of Government. The Opium Agents, and their
subordinate Officers of every description, are declared amenable to the Civil
Courts for, all acts done by them in their official capacity, except as
otherwise herein provided. No suit to be brought unless
applicant for redress first made to agent.? But no suit shall be instituted
against an Agent, or any subordinate Officer, for any act done in his official
capacity, unless the person who shall consider himself aggrieved by the act of
such Agent or Officer shall have first made application for redress to the
Agent himself. In the event of such person not being satisfied with the order
which the Agent may pass upon his application, it shall then be competent to
him either to lay his case by petition before the Board of Revenue, or at once
to seek redress in the Civil Court. The Opium Agents shall not
in their official to capacity institute any suit in a Civil Court without the
of Board of Revenue. In cases in which the Board
of Revenue may judge it-expedient, or in which they may be so directed by
Government, they point may take upon themselves, or intrust to an Officer
specially appointed for the purpose, the superintendence of the prosecution or
defence of any suit or appeal in which they or an Agent, or any other Officer
subordinate to them may be engaged, instead of leaving such superintendence to
the Agent or any other Officer. The Board of Revenue, with
the sanction of government, shall from time to time fix the limits within which
licenses may cultivation and price to be given for the cultivation of the poppy
on account of Government. With the like sanction they shall from time to time
fix the price to be paid to the cultivators for the Opium produced. The price
shall be fixed at a certain ??? per seer of eighty tolahs for Opium of a
certain standard consistence, and shall he subject to a rateable reduction,
according to a scale sanctioned by the Board of Revenue, for Opium of a
consistence below the standard. The Sub-deputy Agents, or
other Officers entrusted with the superintendence of the cultivation, shall, at
the proper period of the year, issue licenses to the cultivators who may choose
to engage to cultivate the Poppy, and to deliver the produce to the Officers of
Government at the established rates. What to be specified in
license.? Every license shall specify What to be specified the number of
beengahs which the party engages and is in license authorized to cultivate, and
shall be in such form as the Agent, with the sanction of the Board of Revenue,
may direct. A counterpart engagement, in conformity with the tenor of the
license, shall be taken from the cultivator. It shall be at the option of
every cultivator to enter into engagements for the cultivation of the Poppy or
not as he may think fit; and any Sub-deputy Agent or other Officer as
aforesaid, or any inferior Officer employed in the provision of Opium, who
shall compel, or use any means to compel any cultivator to enter into
engagements, or to receive dismissed advances, for the cultivation of the
Poppy, shall be liable to be dismissed form to be dismissed from his situation. Sub-deputy Agent May Subject
to appeal, withhold license to cultivate.? It shall be at the option of the
Sub-deputy Agent, or other Officer as aforesaid, to withhold a license from any
cultivator whenever he may think proper so to do. Any person to whom a license
has been refused may appeal to the Agent, and the decision of the Agent shall
be final. If it shall be found that
any cultivator who has received advances from Government has not cultivated the
full quantity of land for which he received such advances, he shall be liable
to a penalty of three times the amount of the advances received for the land
which he has failed to cultivate and the said penalty may be-adjudged by the
Deputy Agent or Collector, on the complaint of the Sub-deputy Agent or other
Officer as aforesaid. Any person dissatisfied with the judgment of the Deputy
Agent, or Collector may appeal to the Agent, and the decision of the Agent
shall be final. All Opium the produce of
land cultivated with Poppy on account of Government, shall be delivered by the
cultivators to the Sub-deputy Agents or other District Officers, or shall be
brought by them to the Sudder Factory, as the Agent may direct. And no such
Opium shall be liable to be distrained or attached by a Zemindar or other
proprietor, or a farmer of land, for the recovery of arrears of rent, or by any
other creditor of a cultivator under any order or decree of Court, but the sum
due to the cultivator on account of such Opium may be attached by order of
Court in the hands of the Agent or of the District Officer under the rules in
force for such attachments. All Opium delivered by the
cultivators to the Sub-deputy Agent or other District Officer, shall, before,
it is forwarded to the Sudder Factory, be weighed, examined, and classified
according to its quality and consistence by that Officer, or his Assistant if
duly authorized by the Agent in that behalf, in the presence of the cultivators
and in conformity with rules sanctioned by the Board of lievenue. Any
cultivator who may be dissatisfied with he classification of the District
Officer, shall be at liberty either to take his Opium to the Sudder Factory, or
to have it forwarded thither by such Officer separate from the Opium respecting
which no dispute has arisen. All Opium forwarded by the
District Officers to the Sudder Factory, and all Opium delivered at the Sudder
Factory by the cultivators, shall be there weighed and examined by the Opium
Examiner, or other Officer duly authorized in that behalf, agreeably to rules
sanctioned by the Board of Revenue; and the quality and consistence of the
Opium, and the deductions from or additions (if any) to the standard price to
he made in accordance with the said rules, shall, be determined by the result
of such examination. The decision of the Examiner, or of the Agent in cases in
which a reference to the Agent may be prescribed by the said rules, shall be
final and conclusive, and not open to question in any Court. When Opium delivered by a
cultivator, either to a District Officer, or at the Sudder Factory, is
suspected of being adulterated with any foreign substance, it shall be
immediatly sealed up pending, examination by the Opium Examiner, and notice of
such intended examination shall be given to the cultivator. If upon such
examination the Opium shall be found to be so adulterated, the Agent on the
report of the Examiner may order that it be confiscated; and the order of the
Agent shall be final, and not open to question in any Court. The weights and scales made
use of in the Sudder Factories, and at the District Kothees, shall be provided
by the Board of Revenue. Every District Officer shall annually, before
beginning to weigh the Opium of the season, examine the weights and scales in
use in his District and shall report the result of such examination to the
Agent. The Agent shall make a similar examination of the weights and scales of
the Sudder Factory, and shall report the result to the Board. No weights or
scales shall be made use of which on any such examination have not been found
to be strictly accurate, it shall be the duty of all Officers who may
superintend the weighing of Opium, to see that the Opium is weighed fairly with
an even beam, and the practice of taking excess weight for the purpose of
turning the scale, or as an allowance for dryage and wastage, is hereby
prohibited. The accounts of the
cultivators shall be adjusted annually by the District Officers as soon after
the conclusion of the weighting and examination as possible; and any balance
that may remain due from any cultivator, or from any muhto or intermediate
manager, may be recovered by the District Officer, by distress and sale of the
property of the defaulter or of his surety, in the same manner and under the
same rules as the property of defaulting cultivators in estates held khas may
be distrained and sold by the Collector for the recovery of an arrear of rent
or Revenue. Proviso.? Provided that no
warrant of distress and sale shall be issued by any District Officer without
the sanction of the Agent previously obtained. Any Officer of the Opium
Department who shall receive any fee, gratuity, perquisite, or allowance,
either in money or effects, under any pretence whatsoever, from any cultivator,
of from any other person employed or concerned in the provision of Opium, other
than the authorized allowances of his situation, shall be dismissed from his
office, and, on conviction before a Magistrate, shall be liable to a fine not
exceeding five hundred Rupees. If any zemindar, or other
proprietor of land, or any farmer of land, shall exact from any ryot on account
of his Poppy land, any illegal cess or any higher rate of rent than he is
lawfully entitled to demand, the ryot, or the Sub-deputy Agent or other
District Officer on his behalf, may institute a suit before the Collector, and
recover from such proprietor or farmer the sum exacted by him in excess of his
lawful demand, together with a penalty of treble the amount of such excess; and
such suit shall be cried according to the rules prescribed for suits instituted
before a Collector relating to arrears or exactions of rent. Any cultivator entering into
engagements for the cultivation of the Poppy on account of Government, who may
embezzle, oil otherwise illegally dispose of, any part of the Opium produced,
shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding ten times the fixed price of the
Opium which he may be proved to have so disposed of, or to a fine not exceeding
five hundred Rupees, if the amount of the said penalty be less than that sum,
and the Opium, if found, shall be liable to confiscation. Any person purchasing or
receiving any Opium from a cultivator or other person who may have entered into
engagements for the cultivation of the Poppy, or who may be employed in the
provision of Opium on account of Government, or bargaining for the purchase of
Opium with such cultivator or person, in any way causing or encouraging such
cultivator or person to embezzle or illegally dispose of any Opium, and any
Officer of the Opium department conniving in any way at the embezzlement or
illegal disposal of any Opium, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one
thousand Rupees, unless the Opium purchased, bargained for, or illegally
disposed of, shall exceed the weight of thirty-one seers and a quarter, in
which case the fine may be increased, at a rate not exceeding thirty-two-Rupees
per see for all such Opium in excess of that weight and the Opium, if found,
shall be liable to confiscation. Any person who shall
cultivate the Poppy without license from a Sub-deputy Agent or other Officer
duly authorized in that behalf, and any person who shall in any way cause,
encourage, or promote such illegal cultivation, shall be liable to a fine not
exceeding five hundred Rupees, unless the quantity of land so illegally
cultivated shall exceed twenty beegahs, in which case the fine may be at the
rate of twenty-five Rupees per beegah; and the Poppy plants shall be destroyed,
or, if any Opium have been extracted from them, it shall be seized and
confiscated. If the Opium shall have been extracted and shall not be seized,
the offender shall be liable to a further fine not exceeding the rate of
thirty-two Rupees per beegah of land illegally cultivated. All proprietors, farmers,
tuhseeldars, gomashtahs, and other managers of land, shall give immediate
information to the Police or AbkareeDarogahs, or Opium Gomashtahs, or to the
Magistrates, Collectors, or Officers in charge of the AbkareeMehal, or to the
Agents, their Deputies, or Sub-deputies, of all Poppy which may be illegally
cultivated within the estates or farms held or managed by them; and every
proprietor, farmer, tuhseeldar, gomashtah, or other manager of land, who shall
knowingly neglect to give such information, shall be liable to the penalties
for illegal cultivation prescribed in the last preceding Section. All Police and
AbkareeDarogahs, and Opium Gomashtahs, and all native Officers of Government of
whatever description, and all Chowkeydars, Pykes, and other village Police
Officers, shall give immediate information to the authority to which they are
subordinate when it may come to their knowledge that any land has been
illegally cultivated with Poppy; and such authority shall transmit the
information to the Sub-deputy Agent, or other Officer superintending the
cultivation of the Poppy, if in a District where the Poppy is cultivated on
account of Government, or to the Collector or Officer in charge of the
AbkareeMehal, if in a District where the Poppy is not so cultivated. Every
Police or AbkareeBarogah, Opium Gomashtah, Native Officer, Chowkcydar, or other
Police Officer as aforesaid, who shall neglect to give such information, or
shall in any respect connive at the illicit cultivation of the Poppy, shall be
liable to a fine not exceeding one thousand Rupees if the offender be an
Officer of the Opium department, or in any other case to a fine not exceeding
five hundred Rupees. Whenever a Police or
AbkareeDarogah or Opium Gomash-tab shall receive intelligence of any land
within his jurisdiction having been illegally cultivated with Poppys he shall
immediately proceed to the spot, and if the information be correct, shall
attach the crop so illegally cultivated, and report the same without delay to
the authority to which he may be subordinate. He shall at the same time take
security from the cultivator of the said land for his appearance before the
Magistrate; and in the event of such cultivator not giving the required
security, he shall send him in custody to the Magistrate. Proprietors, farmers,
tuhseeldars, gomashtahs, and other managers of land, shall be at liberty to
attach any Poppy grown in opposition to the provisions of this Act in any
estate or farm held or managed by them, and shall immediately report such
attachment to the nearest Police or AbkareeDarogah or Opium Gomashtah, who
shall thereupon proceed in conformity with the rules contained in the last
preceding Section. Except as otherwise herein
provided, all fines, penalties, and confiscations prescribed by this Act shall
be adjudged by the Magistrate on the information of the Deputy Agent or
Sub-deputy Agent in Districts in which the Poppy:is cultivated on account of
Government, and in other Districts on the information of the Collector or
Officer in charge of the AbkareeMehal; provided that no information of an
offence against this Act shall be admitted unless it be preferred within the
period of one year after the commission of the offence to which the information
refers. When any person is sentenced
to pay any fine or penalty under this Act, such person, in default of payment
of the same, may be imprisoned by order of the Magistrate for any time not
exceeding six months, or until the fine is sooner paid. Whenever any person shall be
convicted of an offence against this Act after having been previously convicted
of a like offence, he shall be liable, in addition to the penalty attached to
such offence, to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months; and a like
punishment of imprisonment not exceeding six months shall be incurred, in
addition to the punishment which may be inflicted for a first offence, upon
every subsequent conviction after the second. Every person who shall be
imprisoned under the last preceding Section, or on account of the non-payment of
any fine or penalty prescribed by this Act, unless such person be an Officer of
Government or a village Police Officer convicted of an offence under Section
XVII, XX, or XXIII, shall be imprisoned in the Civil Jail. One-half of all fines and
penalties levied from persons convicted of offences under Sections XIX, XX, and
XXI of this Act, together with a reward of one Rupee eight annas for each seer
of Opium confiscated and declared by the Civil Surgeon to be fit for use, shall
upon adjudication of the case be awarded to the Officer or Officers who
apprehended the offender, and the other half of such fines and forfeitures,
together with a reward of one Rupee eight annas for each seer of Opium
confiscated as aforesaid, shall be given to the informer. If in any case the
fine or penalty is not realized, the Board of Revenue may grant such reasonable
reward, not exceeding the sum of two hundred Rupees, as may seem to them fit. The Governor General of
India in Council may authorize, by an Order of Government, the cultivation of
the Poppy and the manufacture of Opium in any District or Districts without
license from a Sub-deputy Opium Agent or other Officer of Government; and when
such order has been published, all the provisions of this Act shall cease to
have effect in such District or Districts. Proviso.? Provided always
that the Government may prescribe rules for the delivery of the Opium so
produced to Officers of Government appointed to receive it; and when such,
rules have been passed, any cultivator other person engaged in the cultivation
of the Poppy and manufacture of Opium who shall dispose of any Opium otherwise
than is allowed by such rules, and any person who shall purchase or receive any
such Opium in contravention of the said rules, shall be subject to the
penalties prescribed in Section XIX of this Act; and such penalties may be adjudged
by a Magistrate on the information of any Officer of Government or of any other
person. Opium
Act, 1857 [Repealed]
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