The Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA), under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs Food and Public Distribution, on May 18, 2026, issued an advisory clarifying the permissible use of customary units such as inches, feet, yards, square feet and dozen as supplementary declarations alongside standard SI metric units under the Legal Metrology Act 2009 and rules framed thereunder.
The Department clarified that SI metric units prescribed under the Legal Metrology framework shall continue to remain the legally recognized standard units for all transactions, regulatory compliance and consumer protection purposes. However, customary units may be displayed as supplementary or additional information provided that the corresponding SI unit is prominently declared, the customary unit is not used as a substitute for the standard unit, and no ambiguity or misleading representation is created. In case of any inconsistency or dispute, the declaration made in SI units shall prevail.
The advisory further explains that supplementary customary declarations are intended to facilitate ease of trade, consumer understanding, international commercial practices and practical market usage while maintaining the primacy and legal sanctity of SI metric units. Illustrative examples include declarations such as “1 metre (39.37008 inches)”, “1 square metre (10.7639 square feet)” and “139 cm (55 inches television screen size)”. Manufacturers, packers, importers and dealers have been advised to ensure compliance with mandatory SI unit declarations while using customary units only in a non-misleading explanatory manner.
