Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Monday called for decriminalisation of the Legal Metrology Act, which seeks to establish and enforce weights and measures standards in the country.
Addressing a national workshop on Legal Metrology Act, 2009, Goyal suggested a pragmatic approach to decriminalise laws and urged states to support the initiative to balance the interest of consumers with the need to simplify laws so that businesses, particularly the small enterprises, are not put to undue hardship.
"It's our collective responsibility to ensure that the consumers do not face injustice while at the same time understanding the responsibility towards businessmen so that they can work peacefully," the minister said.
He said the focus should be mainly on differentiating between (criminal intent) and (in good faith) cases. He gave example stating that if any wrongdoing at places where calibration of weights and measurements is done, then strict action should be taken.
Goyal pointed out that 97 per cent of cases of first offenses were booked by the State Government on limited sections while no second offense was booked under the same sections. He said that the data exposes the State Governments that are opposing decriminalisation.
"Why are there so many first offenses and second offenses are Nil? How many cases are there as 2nd offense in respective states? What has the State Government done when there is no second offense?" he questioned the states.
As per the statistics of the Department of Consumer Affairs, the number of cases booked by the States/UTs as a first offense in 2018-19 was 1,13,745 while those compounded were 97,690. In the same period, the number of second offenses in which case was booked was 12 of which only 4 cases were filed in the court.
( With inputs from ANI )
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