SC Allows Hotels and Restaraunts to sell water bottles above MRP

New Delhi Dec 13: Supreme Court on Tuesday had said that hotels and restaurants are not bound by the maximum retail price (MRP) regulations when they sell bottled mineral water.

A bench led by Justice Rohinton F Nariman ruled that "provisions of Legal Metrology Act will not be applicable in selling bottled water in hotels and restaurants and therefore, no prosecution can be launched against them for selling above MRP."

The bench has also observed that "composite elements of sale and service are there in hotels and restaurants where consumers also enjoy the ambience, invested into by these commercial establishments.It is not a case of simple sale. Nobody goes to hotel to buy or take away a bottle of mineral water."

Earlier the government had argued that " sale in hotels would require mandatory compliance with the provision of the Act and that there would be jail term and fine for selling above MRP as overcharging for pre-packed or prepackaged products was an offense under the Legal Metrology Act."