In response to a writ petition filed by the All India Gem & Jewellery Domestic Council (GJC), the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court passed an interim order on 7th May 2021, to stop the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) from taking any coercive action against jewellers who may not comply with BIS mandatory hallmarking regulations due to the lack of infrastructure. The Court ruled that “no coercive action shall be taken against the jewellers under Section 29(2) of the BIS Act, 2016, till the next date of 14th June 2021.”
According to Rohan Shah, Senior Advocate, appearing for GJC in a virtual hearing, the new regulation making it compulsory to hallmark gold jewellery before it is stored or sold with effect from 1st June 2021 will result in great hardship to 500 000 jewellers in India. Also, he said that the percentage of hallmarking centres available in India is about 34% and at least 488 districts did not have any hallmarking centres. With about 60 000 mn pieces of jewellery, which need to be hallmarked, any breach of the said mandate of the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016 (BIS Act) will be punishable with maximum imprisonment of one year. Also, it was not possible for every piece of jewellery presently available to be hallmarked before these provisions of law come into force. In addition, the situation is aggravated by the present COVID restrictions preventing a person to travel from one district to another.
Ashish Pethe, Chairman GJC, said, “The Government cannot imprison any jeweller or levy any fines whatsoever for any default. We feel BIS will look at the gravity of the order and will try to resolve what the court has envisaged and hold mandatory hallmarking till things are fixed with the industry, which is equally interested in hallmarking applied reasonably.”
Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished
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