The Gujarat High Court today sought the state government's stand on a plea for direction to the hotels and restaurants to serve food and beverages in measurements of gram and millilitre.
The division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi sought the government's stand on the plea, issuing notices, among others, to the Legal Metrology controller and the director of state government's Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department.
The notices were issued on a petition by Gujarat Khedut Hitrakshak Samiti, which said the hotels and restaurants serve food and beverages in unknown qualities and are operating without any rules and regulations regarding the weights and measures.
It said as per the Standard of Weights and Measurement Act, 1976, the base unit of the mass is kilogram and no weight, measure or numeral other than the standard weight, measure or numeral is to be used.
The petitioner said the hotels and restaurants serve food per dish or per plate and set the price accordingly.
"Dish or plate is unit of measurement, which is absurd. There is no mention of dish or plate as unit of measurement as per the Standard of Weights and Measurement Act, 1976," it said.
"How will a consumer know how much rice or vegetable he gets per dish?" it further said, adding non-enforcement of the Act is a cheating on consumers who are forced to purchase food and beverage items without knowing the quantity.
It sought high court's direction to enforce the Act on hotel and restaurant industry and other allied industry engaging in serving food and beverages and compel them to serve food and beverages in the standard measures of 100 gm and 100 ml and its multiples and also disclose the price in menu as per their measurement.
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