New Delhi, Mar 15 (PTI) Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said the government intends to decriminalise the Legal Metrology Act and asked his department as well as states to take a decision on this issue at the earliest in order to stop harassment of small shopkeepers.
Addressing an event here to celebrate the World Consumer Rights Day, the minister said the government’s priority is to protect consumers for unfair trade practice, but the law should not become a “tool of harassment”.
The Legal Metrology Act 2009 enforces standards related to weights and measures. In its present form, the law prescribe imprisonment, in addition to fine, for second or subsequent offence.
“I personally would like to flag off a couple of concerns…because I do believe that it’s important. I do believe it’s important that what Rohit Kumar Singh (Consumer Affairs Secretary) said about decriminalisation should also be understood by all of us,” he said.
“We have a Legal Metrology Act. And I myself being a startup entrepreneur 35 years ago. And 35 years ago, also the harassment that we faced due to the Act as a entrepreneur is possibly something which is being faced even today, particularly by small shopkeepers, small businesses on a day to day basis,” he said.
Goyal said the government wanted to decriminalise this Act to stop the daily harassment, which he himself faced.
However, he said the consumer organisations and many state governments started opposing this proposal.
The minister said the consumer should be protected and their grievances should be addressed sensitively but the laws should not be misused to harass businessmen.
“The department (consumer affairs) should take a decision at the earliest,” he said.
Goyal also asked States to take a decision soon on the Legal Metrology Act and asked his department to hold a meeting in this regard.
In 2020, the department floated a draft document for public consultations, proposing decriminalisation of offences under the Legal Metrology Act.
Elaborating on the matter, Goyal said there are three Sections in this Act under which most of the cases are filed.
The first is section 33- penalty for use of unverified weights or measures in which 60 per cent of the cases under this act are filed. Second Section 36 (1) penalty for selling of non-standard packages in which about 25 per cent of the cases are filed. Section 25 penalty for use of non-standard weights and measures in which between 8-10 per cent cases are filed.
Citing data of the last three years, Goyal said broadly 51,000-54,000 cases were filed as first offence under Section 33, about 20,000-22,000 cases filed under Section 36 (1) and 8,000-10,000 cases filed under Section 25.
“This is all first offence which is compoundable. I fail to understand after the first offence is filed how the number of second offence falls. The second offence can put you behind bar as it is criminal,” he said.
Goyal pointed out that in 2018-19, the cases of first offence were 89,724 and the second offence only 11. In 2019-20, the first offence cases were 92,000 while second offence only 2 while in 2020-21 the first offence cases were 85,000 and second offence zero.
He sought to know that how small businessmen and shopkeepers did not engage in unfair trade practice after committing their first offence.
“You can understand the meaning of this what could have happened between the first and the second offence,” Goyal said.
The minister stressed on changing the system that harass small shopkeepers.
Goyal highlighted the action taken by the department on misleading advertisements to protect customers but said frivolous litigations should be avoided and punished.
According to an official statement, Goyal said effective enforcement of laws is necessary to protect consumer interest and encourage high-quality products and services, but legal provisions should not be used to harass small businessmen and traders.
“It is necessary to stop harassment of small traders and small businessmen in the name of law,” he added.
Goyal expressed the hope that by the World Consumer Rights Day next year, decriminalization of certain provision of Legal Metrology Act should reach finality, and urged all stakeholders to discuss the matter.
The minister shared instances of actions being taken by the Department of Consumer Affairs against misleading advertisements.
He said that action was taken against a toothpaste company claiming to be World’s No. 1. Similar action was taken against another company claiming to have sold out the stock within no time.
Goyal also talked about the Quality Standardisation work being undertaken by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) mentioning that hallmarking has provided consumers with the long-due right to Quality, Purity & transparency.
He said that till December 2021, more than 1.3 lakh jewellers have taken registration from BIS for selling gold hallmarked jewellery, while 987 BIS recognized assaying & hallmarking centres are operative in the country.
The minister said the business should support new policy decisions which are aimed at furthering consumer protection and requested them to constructively work with government to create holistic environment for business as well as consumer protection.
Stating that ‘justice delayed is justice denied’, he expressed concern over number of vacant positions in various State and District Consumer Commissions and the fact that Supreme Court had to intervene. He urged all the State Governments to fill up their vacancies at the earliest.
Infosys Technologies Ltd Chairman Nandan Nilekani highlighted the need to redesign the consumer dispute redressal mechanism taking into consideration of Artificial Intelligence and making use of speech to speech, speech to text and text to speech open platforms to make the online dispute resolution mechanism available in multi lingual format. PTI MJH MR
