TMI Blog2003 (2) TMI 488X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and warehouses. The salesmen visit the prospective customers at their houses to market the product. A demonstration of the product is given to the customers who themselves handle the product so as to test the performance. It is up to the customer to purchase the product with standard accessories and with or without optional accessories. If the customer is satisfied after demonstration the vacuum cleaner is sold by single piece and not by number. The vacuum cleaner being a consumer durable and electrical equipment cannot be sold in packaged form. So as to protect the product during transportation, handling and storage, the product is put in a cardboard box or a carton. The outer case box or carton is not a package as defined in the Act and the Rules. The package is not sealed and it is not intended to be a sealed package. Customer is entitled to remove the product from the cardboard box, inspect and handle, and then test the performance before buying the same. Even if the customer decides to purchase vacuum cleaner, it is up to him to take the product along with cardboard box or take the product he tested in the office of the company. In the bill/invoice the main unit price and t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sories it is a prepackaged commodity and the package is retail package. As seen from the markings on the packages seized they contain accessories of vacuum cleaners and therefore it is governed by the provisions of the Act and the Rules. The accessories are wrapped separately with declaration of sale price as required under Rule 15 of the Rules. The vacuum cleaner is sold by piece and the same is nothing but a single article or part or portion of anything. The piece comes within the description of number , as the package consists of one number of vacuum cleaner, one number of carpet brush, one number of flexible hosepipe etc. These items should be deemed to be sold in terms of number and markings on the package confirm this aspect. The package containing vacuum cleaner's accessories in carton or box for the purpose of protection does not cease to be pre-package commodity as long as it answers the description intended for sale either in retail or wholesale trade. The seizure is justified and the writ petition is not maintainable as the petitioner is entitled to raise all the pleas before the Criminal Court. 5. The learned Counsel for the petitioner, Sri M.S.Srinivasa Iyengar ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... uum cleaners manufactured and marked by the petitioner-company are covered by the Standards of Weights and Measures Act, 1976, and the Standards of Weights and Measures (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 1977. 8. The Standards of Weights and Measures Act, 1976 is intended to establish standards of weights and measures, and to provide for other related matters. It is also intended to regulate inter-State trade or commerce in weights, measures and other goods which are sold or distributed by weight, measure or number, besides establishing standards of weights and measures length, area, volume, mass, temperature, force, pressure, energy and power etc. The Act also lays down the modalities of manufacturing, packing and/ or selling commodity in a packaged form. The Act applies to commodities in packaged form and the commodities which are not sold in packaged form, but not all products which are sold in non-packaged form are covered by the Act and the Rules. Being a regulatory law made by the Parliament in exercise of police power of the State, it needs strict interpretation of the provisions, especially when the law has a tendency to confront free exercise of fundamental right under Artic ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... package; and (v) the sale price of the package. Explanation :--In this sub-section, the expression unit sale price means the price according to such unit of weight, measure or number as may be prescribed. (2) Every package to which this Part applies shall bear thereon the name of the manufacturer and also of the packer or distributor. (3) Where the package of a commodity to which this Part applies or the label thereon bears a representation as to the number of servings, of the commodity contained therein, such package or label shall also bear a statement as to the net quantity (in terms of weight, measure or number) of each such serving. (4) The statement on a package or label as to the net weight, measure or number of the contents thereof shall not include any expression which tends to quality such weight, measure or number: Provided that the Central Government may, by rules, specify the commodities, the weight or measure of which is likely to increase or decrease beyond the prescribed tolerance limits by reason of climatic variations; and it shall be lawful for the manufacturer or packer of the commodity so specified to qualify the statement as to the net con ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... one, two or more units for sale as a single commodity, such commodity shall be deemed, for the purpose of these rules, to be a pre-packed commodity. 13. The terms combination package, group package, multi-piece package are also defined by Rule 2(c), 2(g) and 20) respectively, to which a reference may be made at appropriate place. Be that as it is, pre-packaged commodity is a commodity which without the purchaser being present is placed in a package so that the quantity of the product contained therein has predetermined value and such value cannot be altered without the package or its lid or cap being opened or undergoing a perceptible modification. The expression 'package' shall be construed as a package containing a pre-packed commodity. Explanation (I) of Section 2(1) of the Act further elaborates that even though the package containing the commodity is opened for testing commodity and even if no alteration is caused to the name, quantity, nature or characteristic of such commodity, it is treated as pre-packed commodity, eg., electric bulb or fluorescent tube. Explanation (II) elucidates that a commodity consisting of number of components and packed in one, two or mor ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ss General Finance and Investment Co. Ltd, AIR 1987 SC 1023. It was held by the Apex Court: Interpretation must depend on the text and the context. They are the bases of interpretation. One may well say if the text is the texture, context is what gives the colour. Neither can be ignored. Both are important. That interpretation is best which makes the textual interpretation match the contextual. A statute is best interpreted when we know why it was enacted. With this knowledge, the statute must be read, first as a whole and then section by section, clause by clause, phrase by phrase and word by word. If a statute is looked at, in the context of its enactment, with the glasses of the statute-maker, provided by such context, its scheme, the sections, clauses, phrases and words may take colour and appear different than when the statute is looked at without the glasses provided by the context. With those glasses we must look at the Act as a whole and discover what each section, each clause, each phrase and each word is meant and designed to say as to fit into the scheme of the entire Act. No part of a statute and word of a statute can be construed in isolation. Statutes have to be co ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... acked commodity, did not comply with the standards set out in the Act and the Rules. I may, however, hasten to add that this does not, however, mean that whenever a commodity is sold as a single piece it is totally excluded from the ambit of the Act and the Rules. Explanations-I and II to Rule 2(1) of the Rules (pre-packed commodity) would not lead to such interpretation. Be that as it may, when once the commodity is offered for sale in only packaged form, the manufacturer or retailer has to comply with the Act and the Rules, and not otherwise. 20. Yet another circumstance to arrive at the conclusion is that the vacuum cleaner to a common man is a machine intended to be used for various chores of cleaning and dusting. It is not possible to infer that machine requires packing. When we speak of vacuum cleaner, we are not only speaking hand-held vacuum cleaner, and there could be vacuum cleaners with huge capacity and it will not be possible to construe such all machines require packing. It should not be forgotten that though schedules 1 to 5 enumerate various commodities, vacuum cleaner is conspicuous by absence. 21. In Philips India Ltd. v. Union of India (supra) the Madras Hi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t liberty to see the product and its demonstration and then buy the same with or without accessories. The mere fact that the petitioner prints the description of the product and its technical data does not make the Euroclean as a commodity in packed form or pre-packed commodity. 24. The contention of the respondents that vacuum cleaner falls within the definition of 'combination package' as defined in Rule 2(c) of the Rules and therefore covered by the provisions of the Act and the Rules is devoid of any merit. As per Rule 2(c) of the Rules 'combination package' means a package intended for retail sale, containing two or more individual packages, or individual pieces, of dissimilar commodities. When a vacuum cleaner is purchased, standard accessories form part of the unit. They are inseparable pails of the vacuum cleaner without which the utility of the machine will be nil. Vacuum cleaner with its standard accessories is sold as one single unit and it cannot be treated as 'combination package' or 'group package'. 25. In the result, for the above reasons, the Writ Petition is allowed as prayed for, without any order as to costs. - - Tax ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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