AURANGABAD: Builders and land developers across the state are facing flak from unexpected quarters. A drive has been launched against them by the Department of Legal Metrology for not following standard measures in the properties they sell. The department has already booked a builder who had sold a flat in the outskirts of the city by mentioning the property’s space measured in square feet instead of square metres.

According to the Legal Metrology (National Standards) Act, 2009, every unit of weight or measure shall be based on units of the metric system (metre, centimetre and square metre) and not in terms of foot, inch or pound. “Whoever wrongly mentions the measurement stands to be booked under section 29 and 33 of the Legal Metrology Act that provides for Rs 10,000 fine per offence per section and per firm and partner,” said Ashok Shinde, inspector of Legal Metrology, Aurangabad. “This has happened in the case of Sudarshan Constructions in Satara where the firm and its two partners were booked under section 29 and 33 and face a fine of up to Rs 60,000,’’

Inspector Shinde and Inspector S Y Munde, who raided the property in Satara told TOI, “Following instructions from the head office in this regard, we randomly picked up property papers from the office of the registrar of properties which was sold by the builder in Satara on January 14 and found that they showed property specification in terms of square feet and inches. This is against the law, so we booked the firm, as well as its two partners,” they said. “We raided the flat and seized the measuring instrument, a tape which was not a duly certified instrument according to the norms,” said Shinde.

“The act came into being in 2009 and implementation started in April 2011. However, since it was not being taken seriously, the department launched a drive to implement its provisions about a fortnight ago,’’ said Shinde.

The Metrology department campaign, however, hasn’t gone down well with the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI). Papalal Goyal, president of the Aurangabad Chapter of CREDAI, said the association has decided to make a representation to the government and other authorities concerned against the abrupt implementation of the act.

“Many of us use the term square foot to explain details of a property to our clients or customers in an easy way,’’ he admitted. “But most of the time we use metric terms in documents.’’ He said CREDAI would educate its members as well as others to start following the law. “The developer against whom the Metrology department has registered a case must have used the other term inadvertently,’’ said Goyal. Inspectors Shinde and Munde said they would track down transactions that mentioned feet and inches instead of metres and centimeters, and book defaulters.

The officers claimed this was the first time such a case had been registered against a builder in Maharashtra, specifically Marathwada. The drive was ordered by the controller of legal metrology, Sanjay Pande, an IPS officer of the rank of inspector general of police, they said.

Section 29 provides for “penalty for quoting or publishing etc, of non-standard units”. It states, “Whoever violates section 11 shall be punished with fine which may extend to 10 thousand rupees and, for the second or subsequent offence, with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both. And section 33 - penalty for use of unverified weight or measure says, “Whoever, sells, distributes, delivers or otherwise transfers or uses any unverified weight or measure shall be punished with fine which shall not be less than two thousand rupees but which may extend to 10 thousand rupees and, for the second or subsequent offence, with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year and also with fine,” the officials said.

