Govt to file review petition against SC order on MRP issue

SC had said that the government cannot enforce sale of mineral water on their MRPs in hotels and restaurants as the Standards of Weights and Measures Act, 1976 does not apply

The government will file a review petition in the Supreme Court against an order allowing hotels and restaurants to charge higher price than the MRP on mineral water, Consumer Affiars Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said on Saturday.

"In relation with the recent Supreme Court judgement on MRP issue, we are filing a review petition before the apex court to reconsider its judgement," Paswan told reporters here.

Earlier this month, the apex court had said that the government cannot enforce sale of mineral water on their MRPs in hotels and restaurants as the Standards of Weights and Measures Act, 1976 does not apply.

Allowing the appeals filed by the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI), the Supreme Court had set aside the previous order passed by Delhi High Court.

The FHRAI had contended that providing mineral water to its customers was a transaction consisting predominantly of a service and not of a sale of drinking water.

"We are, therefore, of the view that neither the Standards of Weights and Measures Act, 1976 read with the enactment of 1985, or the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, would apply so as to interdict the sale of mineral water in hotels and restaurants at prices which are above the MRP," the Supreme Court had said in its order passed on December 12, 2017.

Paswan has always been vocal against dual MRPs on products and favouring certain mandatory labelling requirements.

He approved amendments to the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011, that will come into effect from January 1, 2018. The amended rules, among others, prohibit dual MRPs on products.

Paswan, on several occasions in the past, also spoke against unfair imposition of service charge on food bill and had even sought explanation from hotels and restaurants' bodies.