Duty free shop sales beyond customs frontiers cannot sustain Legal Metrology proceedings where the complainant lacks authority.

Criminal proceedings under the Legal Metrology Act, 2009 and the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 concerning alleged non-compliant packaged goods sold at a duty free shop in an international airport were found unsustainable where the sale occurred beyond the customs frontiers of India. The Court treated such duty free sales as outside the customs area for the statutory setting considered and held that the Legal Metrology Officer lacked authority on those facts to initiate the complaint. The proceedings were therefore treated as not in accordance with law, amounting to an abuse of process, and were quashed.

---

---

Issues: Whether the criminal proceedings under the Legal Metrology Act, 2009 relating to alleged non-compliant packaged commodities sold at a duty free shop in an international airport could be sustained when the transaction took place beyond the customs frontiers of India and the complaint was initiated by a Legal Metrology Officer.

Analysis: The proceedings arose from alleged contraventions of the Legal Metrology Act, 2009 and the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 in relation to goods sold at a duty free shop situated in the security hold area of an international airport. The Court noted that duty free shops of this nature operate beyond the customs frontiers of India and that the transaction had taken place outside the customs area for the purposes considered in the decision. Relying on the legal position that such sales are outside the customs frontiers and on the scope of the statutory scheme, the Court held that the complainant lacked authority to initiate the proceedings for the alleged offences in the facts of the case. The proceedings were therefore treated as not in accordance with law and as an abuse of the process of court.

Conclusion: The proceedings were held to be not maintainable against the petitioners and were quashed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the alleged offence pertains to sales at a duty free shop situated beyond the customs frontiers of India, the complaint under the Legal Metrology Act, 2009 cannot be sustained if the complainant lacks jurisdictional authority to initiate the proceedings on those facts.

---