332. Carriage of grain.- (1) Where grain is loaded on board any Indian ship anywhere or is loaded within any port in India on board any other ship, all necessary and reasonable precautions shall be taken to prevent the grain from shifting; and if such precautions as aforesaid are not taken, the owner or the master of the ship or any agent of the owner who was charged with the loading or with sending the ship to sea laden with grain shall be guilty of an offence under this sub-section and the ship shall be deemed for the purposes of this Part to be unsafe by reason of improper loading. (2) Where any ship which is loaded with grain outside India without all necessary and reasonable precautions having been taken to prevent the grain from shifting, enters any port in India so laden, the owner or master of the ship shall be guilty of an offence under this sub-section and the ship shall be deemed for the purposes of this Part to be unsafe by reason of improper loading. (3) On the arrival at a port in India from a port outside India of any ship carrying a cargo of grain, the master shall cause to be delivered at the port to such customs or other officer as may be specified by the Central Government in this behalf, a notice stating- (a) the draught of water and free board of the said ship after the loading of the cargo was completed at the final port of loading; and (b) the following particulars of the grain carried, namely:- (i) the kind of grain and quantity thereof stated in cubic feet, quarters, bushels or tons weight; (ii) the mode in which the grain is stowed; and (iii) the precautions taken to prevent the grain from shifting. (4) Any person authorised in this behalf by general or special order of the Central Government may, for securing the observance of the provisions of this section, inspect a ship carrying a cargo of grain and the mode in which such cargo is stowed therein. (5) The Central Government may, subject to the condition of previous publication, make rules in relation to the loading of ships with grain generally or of ships of any class specifying the precautions to be taken, and when such precautions have been prescribed, they shall be treated for the purposes of this section to be included in the expression "necessary and reasonable precautions". (6) In this section, the expression "grain": includes wheat, maize, oats, rye, barley, rice, pulses and seeds, and the expression "ship carrying a cargo of grain" means a ship carrying a quantity of grain exceeding one-third of the ship's registered tonnage reckoning on hundred cubic feet or two tons of weight of grain as equivalent to one ton of registered tonnage. | 
