T T PVT LTD Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In these petitions under Art. 226 of the Constitution the petitioners have sought for a declaration that S. 39 of the Standards of Weights and Measures Act, 1976 (hereinafter referred to as the Act and Rules 1(3), 2(s), 4, 6 and 23 of the Standards of Weights and Measures (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 1977 (hereinafter referred to as the Rules) are void and unenforceable. They have also sought for certain other incidental reliefs.

(2.) The petitioners claim to be engaged in the business of selling various commodities who have factories in various parts of the country. Various goods are manufactured by them with the intention of selling them throughout India. The grounds upon which the various provisions of the Act and the Rules are challenged are as follows :

(3.) The concept of consumerism has assumed great significance in recent times in the developing countries. Almost always the consumer movements are poorly financed, usually unpaid and often not very impressive in their presentation of facts and conclusions, they nevertheless are able to encounter a generally sympathetic public with confidence and the movement has slowly and steadily gathered momentum. From the business community consumer movement has met with the fiercest opposition, a posture which still exists to some extent even today. Even so, the demand for urgent reforms became irresistible at making products safer and curbing the most outrageous exploitation of part-time buyers by full-time sellers, and dealing with a host of questionable marketing practices that were successful only because of consumer guillibility or economic illiteracy. The consumer protection was never a serious concern of even governments which had a duty under the Constitution for the welfare of the people as a whole. The principle recognised by law having been "buyer beware or caveat emptor", rules and regulations affecting the industry, trade and commerce having been modelled on that basis the governments all over the world appear to be more interested in earning revenues than in protecting the interests of the consumers. A consumer is taken for granted and almost always ignored. In this background several laws aimed at protecting the consumers were enacted, one of them being the Act.