Gold Jewellery Hallmarking: Kerala HC Dismisses Pleas On Deadline Extension

The Kerala High Court recently dismissed a bunch of petitions seeking an extension of the Union government’s 1^st April deadline, requiring gold jewelry and artifacts sold to consumers to bear a six-digit Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) number.

A single bench of Justice Shaji P Chaly was hearing a bunch of petitions filed by associations representing gold and silver merchants and dealers.

The Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs announced in the first week of March that the sale of jewelry without hallmarking and HUID will be prohibited beginning from 1^st April, 2023.

According to the ministry, each piece of jewelry will be assigned a unique six-digit HUID number during the hallmarking process at assaying and hallmarking centers.

The petition claimed that having to remove the existing BIS hallmarks from jewelry and then have the HUID hallmarking done is a time-consuming process.

The petition further stated that when the four existing BIS hallmark symbols in a piece of jewelry are removed, two to five milligrams of gold are lost, resulting in a significant loss when the process is repeated in each piece of jewelry.

In such cases, the petitioners argued, the bench should allow the sale of jewelry with BIS-compliant hallmark symbols and allow time for the new system to be implemented.

During the hearing, the Union government’s counsel stated that the government has decide to delay the implementation of the new system.

The petitions were dismissed by the bench based on the submission.