INVESTIGATION OF OFFENCES

Legal metrology act 2009 is a special law as defined under section 41 of

Indian Penal Code. Section 4(1) of Cr.P.C. 1973 provides that all
offences under Indian penal code (which are investigated by officer in
charge of police station) shall be dealt with in accordance with provisions
of Cr.P.C. whereas section 4(2) states that, all offences under any other
law shall be investigated, inquired into, tried and otherwise dealt with
according to the provisions of Cr.P.C.

As stated above, the Legal Metrology Act, being a special law should
be dealt with according to Cr.P.C. as long as there are any provisions
contrary to Cr.P.C. in the act. In such a case the provisions of the act
should prevail.

As long as investigation under the act is concerned, Director, Controller

and Legal Metrology Officers are appointed under section 13 and 14 of
the Act for exercising the powers and discharging the functions under the
act. (The powers to specify the function to be discharged by controller or legal metrology officer is
vested with the State Government under section 14(3) of the Act. The State Government, therefore,
by Notification should specify that the function of “investigation of offence” shall be discharged by a
Legal Metrology Officer of a particular rank.) Once the duty of investigation of offences is conferred
on officers, the officers shall be at liberty to carry out the function under provisions of Cr.P.C.)

The word “investigation” is rightly defined under Sec.2 (h) of Cr.P.C.

and includes all proceedings for collection of evidence by police officer.
Here instead of “by police officer”, the words “by legal metrology officer”
shall be used as offences under this act are non-cognizable and police
officer is not authorized to investigate any offence under the act.

PROCEEDURE FOR INVESTIGATION

The procedure for investigation of offences under this act is not

prescribed by Rules and hence there is no other go but to adopt the
procedure under Cr.P.C.

As provided in Sec. 15 of the Act and Section 157 of Cr.P.C., a Legal

Metrology Officer, on receipt of information about commission of offence,
or otherwise has reason to suspect that offence has been or likely to be
committed, shall proceed to the spot to investigate the facts and
circumstances of case and if necessary, shall take necessary steps for
discovery of offender.
 Provided that, if it appears to the legal metrology officer that there is no
sufficient ground for entering into investigation, he should not investigate
the case.

The Legal Metrology Officer therefore, should maintain register of

complaints and information received and they should be properly
investigated.

The Cr.P.C. Sec. 100, 102 and Sec. 15 of the Act authorizes to seize
weight or measure, packaged commodity and documents or articles.
Once seizure is effected the process of discovery of accused should be
initiated. It may involve —

1) Acquiring the proof of ownership of the business, the weight or

measures or other goods or documents, in respect of which offence
is detected. The proof shall be legal document which may disclose
the identity of responsible person.

2) If any other person other than responsible person has abetted the
offence, the identity and other details necessary for prosecution
should be collected.

3) If a packaged commodity is seized at retailer’s premises, PC rule

21(5) authorizes the LMO to make such enquiries so as to know
the source of the packaged commodity. The inquiry may be made

a) by writing to the legal metrology officer of concerned

jurisdiction requesting him to supply information regarding the
persons responsible for offence.

b) Section 91 of CR.P.C. authorizes the LMO to order any person

(to whom he seems to be able to produce any document etc.
which shall be useful in the proceedings of investigation) to
produce before him the things or documents. Non compliance
to such order is an offence u/s 175 IPC.

c) To obtain help of police, a non-cognizable case under section

155(1) Cr.P.C. should be registered in concerned police
station. The police shall refer the LMO to Magistrate. The LMO
should request the Magistrate under section 155(3) to order
the police officer to investigate in the case. Thereupon, police
officer shall investigate the case and submit report to
Magistrate.
 d) Same procedure may be adopted for investigation of offences
in respect of seizure of weight or measure and other goods,
When there are more accused persons involved in offence
other than the person from whom the said things are seized.

e) If the offender appears to be convicted in the matter of similar

offence before, then it must be recorded and due care shall be
taken while compounding the case.

f) Whenever any search of premises is to be undertaken, a

warrant to that effect may be procured from the Controller of
Legal Metrology by the LMO.

g) In case of investigation of any offence beyond territorial

jurisdiction of the concerned LMO, the facts shall be recorded
and shall be intimated to the higher officers for their approval.
Normally no investigation shall be undertaken beyond
territorial jurisdiction by a LMO without valid authority.

h) Investigation of any offence shall be completed in all respect

and inference in the matter shall be arrived at in consultation
with the higher officers by the LMO.

i) Further action in the matter shall be initiated in accordance

with the provisions of the Act and provisions of Cr.P.C. shall
also be considered while prosecuting the offender.

j) If, after investigation it appeared that no offence is committed

or likely to be committed in the matter, the facts shall invariably
be brought to the notice of the superiors and their guidance
may be sought by the LMO.

k) Discreet inquiries shall always be made by the LMO while

interacting with general public and the intelligence so gathered
shall be utilized as an input for investigation.

INSPECTIONS, SEIZURE, INVESTIGATION,

COMPOUNDING, CLUBBING AND CLOSING
CASES.
 1. Booking of cases
Cases are booked in following situations:-
a) During inspection of establishments by area
Inspector against complaint, personal intelligence,
random inspections or campaigns.
b) During inspection of establishments by L.M.O. other
than area Inspector in presence and under
supervision of Dist. Asstt. Controller/Regional Dy.
Controller.
c) During inspection of establishments by L.M.O. other
than area Inspector in squad.
L.M.O. is empowered by section 15 of the Legal Metrology
Act 2009 to enter into and inspect any premises, documents,
goods in relation to which any offence punishable under the Act
appears to have been committed or likely to be committed.
Depending upon the nature of offence, the area Inspector will
visit him-self or send somebody else as a dummy customer,
collect evidence and then disclose his identity or directly
disclose his identity to owner/ in-charge of the premises visited.
If any violation of provisions of Act and Rules made their-
under is noticed by the inspecting L.M.O., he should point out
the same to the owner/ in-charge of the premises as well as
witnesses. Then he should prepare seizer receipt and
pachnama of muddemaal property, hand over copy of the same
to the owner/ in-charge of the premises. The seizure receipt
and panchnama should necessarily contain full details of the
articles being seized and reasons for seizure. The reason for
seizure should be clearly mentioned in the seizure and
panchnama in common language, instead of mentioning legal
terms/ violation of section or Rules. Copy of seizure receipt/
panchnama should be handed over to the defaulter and
signature of the owner or representative should invariably be
obtained in token of having brought to notice of the irregularities
committed by him.
 In case, the owner or his representative declines to attest
the seizure receipt/panchnama or to accept it, the
circumstances should be recorded under attestation of two
witnesses and the seizure receipt should be sent to the
defaulter party by registered post-A/D, to be used as
documentary evidence in the Court. Then report of the seizure
should also be sent to the Court having jurisdiction as required
by Cr. P. C.[sec. 102(3)]
2. Inspection of establishments by Dist. Asstt.
Controller/Regional Dy. Controller:-
Dist. Asstt. Controllers and Regional Dy. Controllers are
basically supervisory authorities. They should not maintain any
seizure receipt book in their office. Whenever a situation comes
that direct inspection of establishment by these officers is
needed, they should call the area Inspector along with his
inspection kit (consisting of seizure receipt book, test
equipments etc.). If in any emergency, the area Inspector is not
available; another inspector of neighboring division within the
District only may be called. But in that case the concerned A.C./
D. C. should note down the reasons in his diary and get written
consent of Controller. If the emergency is such that written
consent of Controller could not be obtained, verbal consent
followed by post facto consent will be allowed. If Inspector other
than area inspector is called by D.C. the same should be
intimated to the concerned Dist. A.C. also. Whenever the
process of inspection and seizure is carried out in presence of
A.C. or D.C., they should invariably sign the related documents.
Dy. Controller, Asstt. Controllers and Inspectors working in
head office and Regional Dy. Controller’s office are not allowed
to go for field inspections unless specifically authorized. In case
of authorization, specific instructions as regards to, which
seizure receipt book and test equipments are to be used, will be
given. Format of authorization annexed.
 3. Inspection by squads:- Incase of Inspections by squads,
the action taken should be intimated to the area inspector,
concerned A.C. and D.C. The area Inspector, on receipt of
such intimation should report the same to the Court having
jurisdiction.
4. Inspection in campaigns:- In case of campaigns,
participating Inspectors may use seizure receipt books
allotted to them. The cases booked vide seizure receipts
used by Inspectors other than area Inspectors, should be
handed over to the area Inspector along with copy of the
seizure, muddemal and other related records as soon as
the campaign is over. These cases should be recorded in
the case register of area inspector and other participating
Inspectors should not record these cases in their case
registers.
5. Processing and investigation of cases registered
After recording case in the prosecution register, area
Inspector will send a show cause notice to accused in Proforma
“A”(Annexed) indicating the details of violation and asking to
show-cause why he should not be prosecuted for the same.
Further he may be asked to furnish the names and addresses
of responsible persons of the accused firm and proof thereof. If
the defaulter firm does not provide above information then
action against the person in-charge of said firm may initiated
according to the provisions of Cr.P.C. Further the same details
can be obtained from licenses issued by different authorities
such as, shops and establishment licenses, food licenses,
licenses issued local authority, excise dept., agriculture dept.,
Website of ministry of corporate affairs viz.- www.mca.gov.in,
etc. The accused firm should be asked to submit documentary
evidence to support the say. If names & addresses of
responsible persons of private Limited/Limited co. are obtained
from website/memorandum article of association, then further
enquiry about the responsibility of conduct of business of such
company can be made by sending individual Proforma ‘A’
notices. During this enquiry nomination under Legal Metrology
Act 2009 should also be checked.
If the violation is such that its primary responsibility lies
with somebody else along with the defaulter firm then, the area
Inspector should enquire about source of the seized goods. If it
is revealed in enquiry that some more defaulters (wholesaler,
distributor, marketer, manufacture) are involved in the case then
area inspector should register case against such defaulters in
the case register as soon as he gets prima facie evidence
against such defaulters and process it according to the
procedure described in the earlier paragraphs. In case of cases
about mandatory declarations on packaged commodities kept
for sale by retailers and manufacturer’s name & sufficient postal
address is appearing on it, case against such manufacturer
should be registered in case register on the same day.
If more than one products are seized from a single
establishment for violation of different sections/Rules then also
only one case against the defaulter firm should be registered in
case register.
6. Procedure to be followed for sending compounding
Proposals
If the accused admits guilt in reply to Proforma ‘A’ notice
and voluntarily proposes to compound the case in
compoundable offences, then the area Inspector would
prepare a proposal for compounding the case and submit
to the competent authority. While submitting such
proposal, the area Inspector will ensure that
a. Names and addresses of the accused person/firm are
correctly mentioned in the proposal.
b. Documentary evidence about the responsibility of accused
person/firm is attached along with the proposal.
c. Sections/Rules violated are correctly mentioned in the
proposal.
d. The name of the person signing the consent letter and his
position in the accused firm is mentioned in it. (supporting
documents should be attached)
e. Declaration that the offence is first offence during last 3
years and due care will be taken for not repeating the
same in future is mentioned in consent letter.
f. Linking documents such as purchase bills produced by
retailers, wholesalers etc., in linked cases are attached
along with the proposal.
g. Present status of other accused persons such as retailers,
wholesalers and manufacturers in linked cases along with
necessary documents is written in proposal.
In case of offences, compoundable by Regional Dy.
Controllers, the proposals should be submitted through
Dist. Asstt. Controllers. Dist. Asstt. Controller should
critically scrutinize these proposals and forward the same
to Regional Dy. Controller along with his critical remarks. If
any discrepancy is noticed by him, he should get it
complied and then only then only send it to Regional Dy.
Controller’s office.
7. Procedure to be followed for closing wrongly booked
cases, cases having insufficient evidence.
If it appears form the reply and evidence submitted by
defaulter firm that no case is made out against it or the
product seized is duplicate and the like, then the area
Inspector should submit his report for closing the case to
 the Controller or Legal Metrology Officer authorized by him
along with necessary documents and his remarks through
proper channel. On receipt of such report, the concerned
Dist. A.C., Regional D.C. should critically analyze, & justify
the proposed action on it and then forward it to the
Controller.
If the accused person like manufacturers or distributors
are located beyond local jurisdiction of area Inspector and
are not traced out, then following procedure should be
adopted to trace them. At least 3 Proforma “A” notices
should be sent to them by registered post A/D. If these
notices are returned with not known/ left address remarks,
should be retained on record. Simultaneously other related
authorities such as Controller, Asstt. Controller, Dy.
Controller and related departments of the concerned area
should be requested to provide necessary information
about these accused persons. Still if it is not possible to
trace out them then true copies of the remarks and
correspondence should be sent along with the proposal for
closing the cases.
8. How to decide second offence
Section 48 of Legal Metrology Act 2009provides that
“Any second or subsequent offence committed after the
expiry period of 3 years from the date on which the first
offence was previously compounded shall be deemed to
be first offence”.
For deciding whether a particular offence is first or
second, detailed violation should be considered. e.g. If first
offence detected and compounded was for not writing
date of manufacture and a offence subsequently
detected was for not writing e-mail address. Then even
though these offences are committed within three years
 and violated the same section 18 of the Legal Metrology
Act 2009, will be treated as first offences.
9. How to club offences.
It is often observed that a particular package manufactured
by some manufacturer is seized at more than one place. If
the manufacturer compounds a case booked at a
particular place and requests to club other cases with it,
then following procedure should be adopted.
a. All the products manufactured/distributed till the date on
which the manufacturer gets the information about
violation of Act/Rules by him, will be considered for
clubbing. While passing order to club such offences a note
of documents/facts verified should taken in the order.
b. If the cases requested for clubbing are booked by
inspectors from different places within the Region, then
Regional Dy. Controller will pass the Clubbing order.
c. If the cases requested for clubbing are booked by
inspectors from different places from different Regions
then Dy. Controller H.Q. will pass the Clubbing order.