Packaged commodity law does not govern dominant service transactions in hotels and restaurants supplying bottled water above MRP.

The weight-and-measure statutes governing packaged commodities were confined to transfer of property in goods for consideration and did not extend to composite hotel and restaurant transactions where service is the dominant element. The constitutional deeming of certain food and drink supplies as sales did not alter the statutory object of regulating packaged goods, disclosure of quantity and price, or the limited scope of the later metrology law. References to pre-packaged commodities and institutional consumers, and the corresponding Rules, did not enlarge the Act beyond its text. As a result, the statutory scheme did not prohibit charging for bottled mineral water supplied in hotels and restaurants above the printed MRP.

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Issues: Whether the Standards of Weights and Measures Act, 1976, the Standards of Weights and Measures (Enforcement) Act, 1985, and the Legal Metrology Act, 2009 apply to the supply of bottled water in hotels and restaurants so as to prohibit charging above the printed MRP.

Analysis: The defining provision of sale under the earlier and later enactments was held to remain confined to transfer of property in goods for consideration and was not altered so as to bring within its scope composite contracts where service is the dominant element. The constitutional amendment deeming certain supplies of food and drink to be sales was held not to change the statutory object of these weight and measure enactments, which is regulation of packaged goods and disclosure of quantity and price. The reference to pre-packaged commodity and to institutional consumer in the later Act and Rules did not enlarge the Act so as to cover the hotel service context, and the Rules could not override the Act itself.

Conclusion: The statutory scheme did not apply to interdict the sale of mineral water in hotels and restaurants at prices above MRP, and the challenge to such pricing failed.

Ratio Decidendi: A weight-and-measure statute directed to packaged commodities does not govern a composite hotel service transaction where the supply of bottled goods is incidental to service, and a later enactment repeating the same definition of sale does not alter that position absent an express legislative change.

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