The Legal Metrology Act, 2009, which establishes and enforces
the usual of weights and measures used within the industrial sector,
has lengthy been subjected to censure proudly owning to its harsh punitive
measures. In current previous, Department of Consumer affairs
launched 
Stakeholder consultation on proposal of decriminalization of Legal
Metrology Act, 2009. It appears that the lengthy awaited respite
appeared ahead to by Directors working below duress and attempting to
dodge the noose of ‘criminality’, is a step nearer to
realisation.

A short historical past of the Legal Metrology Act

The commerce of products is and has been the premise of each financial system.
When folks bartered items, they felt the necessity for uniformity which
led to the utilization of cash. As cash grew to become the standardised mode of
cost, the dual ideas of value and amount started
crystallising. That was the time of localised markets, restricted
communication and technologically restricted promoting.
Traditional modes for measuring amount, like utilizing pebbles in
balances quickly proved inefficient as they supplied a large ambit for
commerce malpractices and affected buyer welfare. The want for a
standardisation of models of weights and measurement was thus felt
all through historical past. As the world grew smaller, economies
interconnected, and worldwide our bodies like International
Organisations for Legal Metrology got here into being, the federal government
enacted the Standards of Weights and Measures Act as early as 1956.
To sustain with the most recent normal of models, the federal government
regularised these Acts in 1977 and in 1985, recognising the necessity
for flexibility and a dynamic method to maintain up with the speedy
modifications within the financial system. Globalisation introduced forth its personal checklist of
challenges because the industrialists grew to become shrewder and clients
remained naive lambs. The Legal Metrology Act of 2009, with all its
draconian measures as enacted to guard the susceptible occasion, the
buyer. However, for the reason that Act has been enacted, social media
platforms have boomed, and knowledge creation and reception has
develop into easy. One publish is all it takes for dangerous promoting to
infect companies. The availability of innumerable substitutes
screams that compromising with high quality may end up in a sudden
dying. It is the period of multinational companies and outsourcing.
The iron fist of the Act, by maligning simply of 1 identify, can now
have an effect on the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands throughout the globe. Therefore, the
time for change has come once more.

Challenges posed by the present Legislation

The Act because it exists as we speak consists of each felony and civil
measures of tackling malpractices inside its gambit. The felony
ramifications come up largely in instances of non-compounding of offences.
This has twin repercussions. Firstly, it raises
the usual of proof for proving the offence, therefore creating an
escape route for wrongdoers. Inability to show the fee
‘past affordable doubt’- particularly with the
important ingredient of mens rea  or felony
intention- hinders the compliance of legal guidelines.This on a micro degree is
dangerous to the rights of shoppers and on a macro degree, to the
Indian market by making a normal mistrust on the authenticity of
the products offered (suspicion on the printed date of producing,
date of import, weight claimed, marketed by, and so on). Interestingly,
together with being too excessive a typical for affixing
legal responsibility, mens rea  additionally results in prosecution
in instances the place the deference needn’t essentially be
intentional. Secondly, the Act straight impacts
ease of doing enterprise in India,which has been evidenced by the
oscillations in its definition of the which means of ‘individual(s)
answerable for the enterprise’, that’s, from together with the board
of administrators from decreasing it to a single nominated director, for
making them criminally answerable for a lot of the offences below the
Act.

Proposed Amendments

Penalties and Preventive Measures

Recognising these challenges, the proposal goals at
decriminalising the provisions the place there needn’t be
any mens reaessentially concerned and the bigger
public needn’t be adversely affected. Thus, the proposal consists of
evaluate of the penalties within the present laws, between
sections 26 and 53 of the Act,which govern the manufacturing or
sale of non normal weights, tampering with licenses, quoting non
normal models, utilizing unverified weight measures, non manufacturing of
required paperwork, promoting non normal packaging in declaration
and amount, and so on. A hiked penalty charge has been instructed as an
various within the vary ofOne lakh to Ten lakhs however with the
caveat of cancelling licenses. Thus, the proposal appears to be
aware in regards to the effectiveness of the penalties as a mode of
prevention, particularly as imprisonment is recommended to be completed away
with.Furthermore, to achieve the identical finish of de-criminalisation,
sure offences comparable to tampering with or altering weights and
measures, giving false returns and sustaining false particulars,
have been instructed to be made ‘compoundable’.

Person answerable for the conduct of enterprise

Targeting part 49 of the Act, which requires a director to be
nominated as a ‘individual in-charge of conduct of
enterprise’, the proposals recommend that nominations be made on
the managerial degree as a substitute.The rationale behind that is that it
is Managers not Directors who’re in-charge of day after day enterprise
operations. Section 49 of the 2009 Act had corrected the fallacy in
the 1976 Act, by offering for the nomination
of one Director or Partner (as opposed
to all within the latter) in opposition to whom
felony proceedings may be initiated. The proposal desires to go a
step additional and absolve the administrators of legal responsibility by placing
managers within the line of fireside.

Selling above MRP – Section 36 (1) A

Finally, the proposal suggests the addition of part 36 (1) A
to focus on the sale of commodities above MRP.As but, it is just
below part 32(3) of the
Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011, as amended
in 2013, that promoting above MRP is ruled, which deems it a
compoundable offence punishable with a high-quality of Rs. Two Thousand in
case of a wholesaler or a retailer, and Rs. Five Thousand in case
of a producer or an importer. This has been strengthened by the
2018 modification whichholds the declaration of twin MRPs as a
contravention to regulation. If part 36 (1) A is launched, the
penalty will enhance such that it’ll between Rs. Five Thousand
and Twenty Five for first time offenders however shall hike as much as a
minimal of Fifty Thousand and One Lakh for respective
repetitions.

Analysis and Conclusion

Hiked fines

The proposals deal with challenges posed by the Act with out
ignoring the goals sought to be fulfilled by it. Given that many
wrongdoers get away with their malpractices due to a better
normal of proof, strictly enforced financial penalties and
cancellation of license as measures of compliance can be, at
least, equally environment friendly as imprisonment and would additionally assist punish
them by hefty fines, stopping them from escaping utilizing the
stringent mens rea requirement. Incorporation of
such proposals would additionally cut back burden on courts as a result of with a
subsequent enhance in compoundable offences, offenders might plead
responsible and conform to pay high-quality, thereby eliminating the necessity for
software of a judicial thoughts.

Cancellation of Licenses

Cancellation of licensesas a penalty for a lot of the provisions
will not be proper method and have to be thought of fastidiously. With an
incentive for decriminalisation being discount on the burden on
courts, it appears absurd to introduce such a penalty as it will
truly reverse this profit by growing litigation. Moreover,
it will have a serious affect on stakeholders tied to the enterprise,
who, although harmless, would find yourself paying for an additional’s
wrongs. An excellent instance of that is that of companies having
multi-location presence, the place default directly place may result in
cancellationof thelicenses for all of the models. This would definitely
be in opposition to the spirit of regulation and fairness and ease of doing enterprise
would additionally worsen.

Nomination of Managers

Regarding the second focal-point of the proposal, whereas
administrators don’t look into day after day workings of an organization, they
ought to bear penalties for non efficiency as they get a share in
revenue as in comparison with managers who merely get a wage. Today,
for the reason that Board is concerned, the business takes these compliances
critically. However if the onus of the cost is completely dropped on
the Manger, the aim of this modification might actually get
defeated.While all the board of administrators shouldn’t be
affected, there have to be some mechanism to make sure legal responsibility on their
half.

Introduction of Section 36(1)A

While decriminalisation is fascinating in some features, it isn’t
a ‘one measurement matches all’ mantra for enchancment. Some
offences are of such a nature that they require a harsher type of
atonement, specifically, imprisonment. Sale of commodities above the MRP
is a gross infringement of shopper rights and a blight in
transparency and clear enterprise operations. It is the Coronavirus
of day-to-day enterprise malpractices, that’s, extremely communicable
throughout sectors and enterprise buildings. Paying puny lakhs wouldn’t
be taken critically in swindles of crores. The Government should
ponder and strategise to introduce needed stringent punishments
to ban such practises.

In Sum

The digitalization scrutiny below the Act can also be a lot awaited
and its ignorance within the proposal has left many points unaddressed.
The authorities should take into account digitalization of all the course of
below the Act. To this regard, the longer term already appears vivid.
With a current notificationdated October 13, 2020, notifying the
growth of a web-based system of nomination of administrators and
mandating on-line request for a similar, the federal government is
alreadydisplaying eagerness to enhance effectivity and transparency
by digitalisation.

Thus, whereas there are some free ends left to be tied, the
proposal looks like a light-weight on the finish of the tunnel.

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