Madras HC reserves order in plea against weighing of sand in 'units'

MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court reserved its orders on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed challenging a G.O. passed by the State government for weighing river sand in 'units' instead of the metric system during sales.

M Rajendran of Tiruchy petitioned that the Water Resources Department had passed the G.O. on January 6, 2022, fixing the basic cost of river sand as Rs 1,000 per unit. Rajendran claimed that the said procedure, in which the government uses the term 'unit' for measuring sand, is in violation of the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, and the Tamil Nadu Legal Metrology (Enforcement) Rules, 2011, which stipulate that commodities should be weighed in terms of the metric system.

When the Division Bench, comprising Justices PN Prakash and S Ananthi, heard the plea this week, the government counsel contended that there is no violation in the G.O. and that one unit of sand means 2.83 cubic metres of sand.

Hearing the submissions, the judges reserved their order in the case.