Summary
The Court held that the weights-and-measures legislation and its replacement Legal Metrology Act did not prohibit hotels and restaurants from charging above printed MRP for mineral water supplied as part of composite service. The statutory sale definitions had not incorporated the constitutional deemed-sale extension for food and drink supplied with services.
Issues
- Whether mineral water supplied in hotel or restaurant service could be interdicted above MRP under the metrology enactments.
- Whether counsel’s concession prevented determination of the statutory jurisdiction question.
Provisions considered
- Section2(v), Standards of Weights and Measures Act, 1976Its sale definition did not split the goods element from an indivisible service contract. (¶¶ 9–10, 13)
- Sections2(r) and2(l), Legal Metrology Act, 2009The unchanged sale definition excluded the relevant composite service transaction; the pre-packaged-commodity definition did not alter that conclusion. (¶ 12–15)
- Article366(29A)(f), Constitution of IndiaThe deemed-sale provision for tax did not itself amend the metrology statutes’ sale definitions. (¶ 11–13)
- Rule3, Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011The quoted rule excluded relevant institutional-consumer packages; subordinate rules could not bring an otherwise excluded transaction within the parent Act. (¶ 15–16)
Held
- The dominant service and incidental supply of food and drinks constitute the relevant indivisible contract. Neither the1976/1985 legislation nor the2009Act applied to prohibit above-MRP mineral-water supply in that hotel or restaurant context. (¶¶ 9–13, 17)
- The constitutional tax amendment did not replace the statutory sale definitions. The definition of pre-packaged commodity, concerned with predetermined quantity, did not resolve the distinct service-contract question. (¶ 11–15)
- A concession on jurisdiction to proceed, particularly in relation to criminal prosecution, did not bind the party and prevented neither review nor determination of the statutory issue. (¶ 14)
Result
Appeals allowed; Division Bench judgment and review order set aside. Relevant metrology enactments held inapplicable to interdict mineral-water supply above MRP in hotels and restaurants in the composite-service context.