Abstract

The Department of Legal Metrology's work for the Government of India entails, among other things, the implementation of the provisions of the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, and the Rules made thereunder. This is done by standardising the weighing and measuring instruments that are used in Trade and Commerce in order to provide the general public with a promise of the safety and precision of weights and metrics. The previous experience with implementing the Act and its Rules demonstrates that compliance can be secured to accomplish the purposes of the Act due to the prohibitive nature of the measures that are now in place. This is a possibility since the restrictions that are already in place have a dissuasive effect. Because they are afraid of being sued for the second and future offences, members of the Trading Community want to avoid committing repeated infractions. Traders are aware that these cases will go to court if the Legal Metrology Authorities (LMOs) identify a violation under certain non-compoundable components; hence, enforcement officers are not discovering any breaches in this regard. The traders are aware that any infractions would result in legal action. The above information can lead one to the conclusion that the existing limits are an effective enough deterrent and that compliance can be guaranteed. Any attempt to decriminalise the current Act and Rules, particularly critical portions, would decrease the deterrent component of the Act, and the Act's aims would not be attained as a result of such an endeavour. In light of these issues, the objective is to decriminalise some sectors that either do not need men’s rea or have more customers who are adversely impacted. The proposal calls for a review of the penalties that are outlined in the legislation between sections 53 and 26 of the Legal Metrology Act. These penalties include the following: the manufacturing or sale of non-standard weights and measures; the tampering with weights and measures licences; the use of non-standard units; the use of nonverified weight measures; the use of non-standard units; the failure to produce required documents; the sale and keeping for sale of non-standard packaging without a declaration; and the failure has been proposed that a compoundable payment may range from one lakh to 10 lakhs; nevertheless, licences would be revoked. As a result of this, imprisonment as a form of punishment is promoted in order to lessen the efficacy of the penalty as a deterrent. It has been suggested, with the goal of achieving the same level of decriminalisation, that specific offences, such as tampering with licences or altering weights and measures, should be compoundable for second and subsequent offences.

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