New Delhi, May 8 (TIWN) The Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court passed an interim order on May 7 which stops Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) from taking any coercive action on jewellers across India or impose penalty on those who may not comply with BIA (BIS Act, 2016) regulations, Section 29(2) on mandatory hallmarking due to the lack of adequate infrastructure in terms of assaying and hallmarking centres.

"The contention is that the new regulation making it compulsory to hallmark gold jewellery before it is stored or sold, which has to come into force w.e.f. 1st June 2021, is likely to result in great hardships to lakhs of jewellers in India and their number is stated to be 5 lakhs."