Hotels/Restaurants Can Sell ‘Packaged Water Bottles’ Above MRP: SC

Hotels and restaurants can continue to sell packaged mineral water bottles above ‘MRP’ rates as the Supreme Court has observed that no prevailing law prevents such a sale.

A bench of Justice RF Nariman and Justice Navin Sinha observed that neither the Standards of Weights and Measures Act, 1976, read with the Standards of Weights and Measures (Enforcement) Act, 1985, or the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, would apply so as interdict the sale of mineral water in hotels and restaurants at prices which are above the MRP.

The Supreme Court upheld a Delhi High Court single bench judgment which had held that charging prices for mineral water in excess of MRP printed on the packaging during the service of customers in hotels and restaurants does not violate any of the the provisions of the Standards of Weights and Measures Act, as this does not constitute a sale or transfer of these commodities by the hotelier or restaurateur to its customers..