Exide Ind moves Delhi High Court

Exide Industries Ltd has moved the Delhi High Court seeking directions to restrain the government from taking coercive action against it and its dealers under the Standards of Weights and Measures Act 1976. It has sought restraint on the ground that the Act was not applicable to its products i.e batteries manufactured by it.

While issuing notices to the Union of India, the Government of NCT of Delhi, the Controller of Legal Metrology, Weights and Measures, and M/s Amar Batteries and Electrical, the court has fixed the next date of hearing on December 13.

Exide has sought directions under Article 226 of the Constitution for quashing of the notice issued by the Controller of Legal Metrology on November 14.

According to Exide, the impugned notice issued under Section 33/39 of the Standards of Weights & Measures (Enforcement) Act, 1985, had ordered seizure of its goods for not conforming to its 1977 Rules and that the offence was punishable under Section 51/63 of the Act.

While apprehending coercive proceedings against it allegedly for no proper declaration according to the Rules, Exide counsel Rajiv Nayar contended that the Controller of Legal Metrology had also seized cartons of its batteries from its distributor M/s Amar Batteries and Electrical's premises.

According to the petition, filed through Shradul S Shroff and Pallavi S Shroff, the company had between 1998 to 2004 filed various petitions in different high courts across the country seeking setting aside of impugned notices issued by various states including Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra on the ground that the said Acts and Rules were not applicable to the batteries manufactured by it.

The petitions were filed under the Standards of Weights and Measures Act 1976, the Standards of Weights and Measures (Packaged) Rules, 1977, the Standards of Weights and Measures (Enforcement) Act, 1985 and the Department of Legal Metrology Rules, it stated.

However, the Andhra Pradesh High Court had disposed of the company's petition in view of the state Legal Metrology department informing that the packaging of batteries, which require filling of acid and charging before delivery to the customers after sale, didn't fall within the ambit of the 'pre-packaged commodity' as defined by the Act and 1977 Rules.

Earlier, the Delhi High Court in 1999 had stayed the Legal Metrology Department's impugned notice which had sought to initiate proceedings under the 1985 Act. The company had also sought transfer of these cases to Delhi, the petition said.