Courts lack technical expertise to interfere with technical specifications unless blatant irregularity or perversity is demonstrated.

BADAR DURREZ AHMED, J.

( 1 ) THE petitioner is the proprietor of Delta Electronics which manufactures Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL ). The petitioner is aggrieved by the fact that the manufacture of CFL) requires mandatory certification under section 14 of the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986 (hereinafter referred to as the BIS Act ). The Bureau of Indian Standards has specified Indian Standard is:15111 in respect of Self Ballasted lamps for general lighting services. These are the lamps which the petitioner manufactures and sells. Part-1 of is:15111 pertains to safety requirements. Part-2 of the said IS:15111 pertains to performance requirements. The petitioner has no issue with part-1 which relates to safety requirements. The petitioner is only aggrieved by the fact that in paragraph 13. 2 of Part-2 of IS:15111, the average life of the lamps has been specified as not less then 6000 hours. According to the petitioner, this is arbitrary and requires to be struck off the said standard.

( 2 ) IN this context, the petitioner has, inter alia, prayed that the notification dated 22. 08. 2005 issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry requiring mandatory certification under Section 14 of the BIS Act, be struck down insofar as it relates to Self Ballasted (with internal choke) CFLs as per is:15111 (Part 1 and 2 ). The petitioner has also prayed that the specification of 6000 hours life time under the said IS is arbitrary and should be removed from the said Indian Standards. The petitioner has also prayed that BIS standards be revised so as to bring it in harmony with the international standards specified by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) which is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising of National electrotechnical Commissions.

( 3 ) THE petitioner contends that part-1 of IS:15111 is based on the IEC standard specified in 60968 with regard to safety requirements. Similarly, part-2 of IS:15111 is based on IEC Standard 60969 in respect of performance requirements. Paragraph 13 of Part-2 of IS:15111 reads as under:-

"13 LIFE 13. 1 The life to 50 per cent failures (average life) measured on `n' lamps shall be not less than the rates life to 50 percent failures. (`n' is declared by the manufacturer or the responsible vendor, but shall be a minimum of 10 lamps.) 13. 2 The average life shall not be less than 6000 h. "

The corresponding paragraph in the IEC 60696 is as under :-

"10 Life the life to 50% failure (average life) measured on "n" lamps shall be not less that the rated life to 50% failures. ("n" is declared by the manufacturer or responsible vendor, but shall be minimum of 20 lamps)"

( 4 ) COMPARING the two provisions, it was contended on behalf of the petitioner that the international standard does not specify any minimum average life whereas the Indian standard specifies the minimum average life of 6000 hours by virtue of paragraph 13. 2 of IS:15111 (Part-2 ). It was contended that since the Indian standard is admittedly based upon the International standard prescribed by IEC, the requirement of a minimum average life of 6000 hours is not in consonance with the International standard and, therefore, ought to be removed from the Indian standard. Referring to the foreword in Part-2 of is:15111, the learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the said Indian standard (Part-2) was prescribed by the Bureau of Indian Standards after the draft finalised by Electric Lamps and their Auxiliaries Sectional Committee had been approved by the Electro-technical Division Council. Furthermore, the standard was based on IEC 60969 (1988) "self Ballasted Lamps for General lighting Service Performance Requirements" issued by the IEC with certain modifications. It was contended that the modification did not include the prescription of an average life of 6000 hours.

( 5 ) THE petitioner submitted that the requirement of a high average life does not, in any way, affect the safety or the performance o