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Take the receipt for the purchase and get the vegetables weighed at another retailer and see if there is any difference. If there is, confront the retailer. You should also complain in such cases to the department of legal metrology. You can get the address and the phone number on the website of the legal metrology department. Whenever you buy vegetables, make sure that the vendor is conforming to the law of the land in respect of the weighing scale and the weights being used. Under the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, all weighing scales and the weights used (for commercial purpose) by the vendors or the retailers will have to conform to the standards set under the Act and should have the stamping and the certification to confirm this. This is meant to ensure that retailers use properly calibrated and verified weighing instruments. The law further requires that the retailer or the vendor get the weighing instruments verified and stamped regularly as required under the law, so as to ensure their accuracy. While the weights and the mechanical balances have to be verified once in two years, electronic weighing machines have to be checked annually, to ensure their accuracy.
A stamp or a seal of verification issued by the metrology officer has four components in them: the first mark refers to the identification of the State, the other is the identity number of the legal metrology officer, the third is the year and the fourth is the quarter of the year, represented by an alphabet. For example, 14A means that it is stamped in the first quarter of the year 2014. So one can check the stamp. Alternatively, and this is easier, you can ask for the certificate of verification issued by the stamping authority, stating that the weight conforms to the standard and also indicting the month and year of stamping and when it is due once again. In fact, under the Legal Metrology (Enforcement) Rules, this certificate has to be displayed by the retailer and in case of itinerant sellers, they have to carry it with them. Failure to do so is punishable. So you can always check the certificate. Vegetable vendors can use beam scales, mechanical counter machine or an electronic balance. Many years ago, Mahila Dakshata Samiti, a Delhi-based consumer organisation had kept a properly calibrated and verified balance in a prominent market in south Delhi, where consumers could go and verify the weight of goods sold to them at the market. This was an excellent practice to prevent cheating on weights and this should be encouraged in all markets in the country. What is the punishment prescribed under the law for such offences? Section 26 of the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, under Chapter V, dealing with ‘Offences and Penalties’, says that whoever tampers with or alters or increases or decreases any weight or measure with a view to deceiving any person, shall be punishable with a fine extending to Rs 50,000 and for a subsequent offence, with imprisonment for six months to a year. Similarly, Section 27 prescribes a penalty for using non-standard weight, which is a fine extending to Rs 20,000 and for subsequent offence, imprisonment which extend to three years or fine or both. Section 30 is the most important section in so far as consumers are concerned. It says that whoever, in selling any article or thing by weight, measure or number, delivers or causes to be delivered to the purchaser any quantity or number, less than the quantity or number contracted for or paid for, shall be punished with fine which may extend to Rs 10,000, and for the second or subsequent offence, with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or both. Sections 33 and 34 also impose fine and imprisonment (for subsequent offence) for using non-standard weights and for selling through non-standard weights respectively. So remember and quote these sections to any vendor who tries to cheat and tell him that he would therefore do well to follow the law. Once the vendor realises that you are an alert and knowledgeable consumer, he will not cheat you.
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I often suspect that
the neighbourhood vegetable vendor from whom I buy my vegetables is
cheating me on quantity. How do I make sure that I get the right
quantity that I pay for?
