(1) Any person desiring to import or manufacture any insecticide may apply to the Registration Committee for the registration of such insecticide and there shall be a separate application for each such insecticide:
     Provided that any person engaged in the business of import or manufacture of any insecticide immediately before the commencement of this section shall make an application to the Registration Committee within a period of¹ [seventeen months] from the date of such commencement for the registration of any insecticide which he has been importing or manufacturing before that date:
     ² [Provided further that where any person referred to in the preceding proviso fails to make an application under that proviso within the period specified therein, he may make such application at any time thereafter on payment of a penalty of one hundred rupees for every month or part thereof after the expiry of such period for the registration of each such insecticide.]
     (2) Every application under sub-section (1) shall be made in such form and contain such particulars as may be prescribed.
     (3) On receipt of any such application for the registration of an insecticide, the Committee may, after such enquiry as it deems fit and after satisfying itself that the insecticide to which the application relates conforms to the claims made by the importer or by the manufacturer, as the case may be, as regards the efficacy of the insecticide and its safety to human beings and animals, register ³ [on such conditions as may be specified by it] and on payment of such fee as may be prescribed, the insecticide, allot a registration number thereto and issue a certificate of registration in token thereof within a period of twelve months from the date of receipt of the application:
     Provided that the Committee may, if it is unable within the said period to arrive at a decision on the basis of the materials placed before it, extend the period by a further period not exceeding six months:
     Provided further that if the Committee is of opinion that the precautions claimed by the applicant as being sufficient to ensure safety to human beings or animals are not such as can be easily observed or that notwithstanding the observance of such precautions the use of the insecticide involves serious risk to human beings or animals, it may refuse to register the insecticide.
     ⁴ [(3A) In the case of applications received by it prior to the 31st day of March, 1975, notwithstanding the expiry of the period specified in sub-section (3) for the disposal of such applications, it shall be lawful and shall be deemed always to have been lawful for the Registration Committee to dispose of such applications at any time after such expiry but within a period of one year from the commencement of the Insecticides (Amendment) Act, 1977 (24 of 1977):
     Provided that nothing contained in this sub-section shall be deemed to make any contravention before the commencement of the Insecticides (Amendment) Act, 1977 (24 of 1977), of a condition of a certificate of registration granted before such commencement, an offence punishable under this Act.
     (3B) Where the Registration Committee is of opinion that the insecticide is being introduced for the first time in India, it may, pending any enquiry, register it provisionally for a period of two years on such conditions as may be specified by it.
     (3C) The Registration Committee may, having regard to the efficacy of the insecticide and its safety to human beings and animals, vary the conditions subject to which a certificate of registration has been granted and may for that purpose require the certificate-holder by notice in writing to deliver up the certificate to it within such time as may be specified in the notice.]
     (4) Notwithstanding anything contained in this section, where an insecticide has been registered on the application of any person, any other person desiring to import or manufacture the insecticide or engaged in the business of, import or manufacture thereof shall on application and on payment of prescribed fee be allotted a registration number and granted a certificate of registration in respect thereof on the same conditions on which the insecticide was originally registered.