Examine how the BIS Act, 2016 strengthened the standards regime in India, with reference to hallmarking of precious metals.

Hallmarking certifies that a precious-metal article meets a notified purity standard, so that buyers do not pay for purity they do not receive [1]. Gold hallmarking had been voluntary since 2000 because the BIS Act, 1986 gave no power to make it mandatory [2]. The BIS Act, 2016 filled this gap and turned voluntary certification into an enforceable regime that can trace each article.

Legal gaps the 2016 Act filled

• Statutory clarity: Sec. 2 defines "Hallmark" and "assaying and hallmarking centre" [3].
• Power to mandate: under Sec. 14, the Centre can notify articles that must be hallmarked after consulting BIS [3].
• Quality-gated marking: under Sec. 14(6) and 14(8), only recognised centres may apply the mark, and only to goods that conform to the standard [3].
• Deterrence: the penalty provisions from Sec. 17 onwards make misuse punishable [3].

How the Act was put into practice

• Phased mandate: gold hallmarking became mandatory in 256 districts on 23 June 2021 and covered 392 districts by Nov 2026 [1].
• Traceability: from 1 April 2023, gold may be sold only if it carries a 6-digit HUID [4]. More than 65 crore gold articles have been HUID-marked [1].
• Technology integrity: XRF machines are API-linked to BIS software and their data is timestamped. Transfer HUID helps prevent duplicate hallmarking [1].
• Consumer empowerment: the BIS CARE app, available in 12 languages, shows an article's purity, weight and photos [1].
• Formalisation: registered jewellers rose from 43,153 to 2,36,624, helped by free, lifetime registration on Manak Online [1].
• Silver: the revised standard IS 2112:2025 sets 8 fineness grades [1]. Since 1 Sept 2025, any hallmarked silver must carry a HUID [5].

Gaps that remain

• Uneven coverage: the mandate follows AHC presence, and recent phases were small: 18, 12 and 7 districts [6]. Rural buyers are covered last.
• Capacity lag: AHCs grew only from 948 to 1,565, which works out to about 151 jewellers per centre [1].
• Silver opt-out: silver hallmarking is still voluntary, so a jeweller can avoid HUID tracking by not hallmarking at all [5].
• Opaque quality data: published figures count HUIDs issued, not how many random samples failed testing [1].

The 2016 Act therefore moved hallmarking from goodwill to law, and from simple certification to traceability. Next steps could be:

• set up AHCs in districts not yet notified;
• publish sampling results every year;
• set a timetable to make silver hallmarking mandatory under the same Sec. 14 power.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee has already examined these concerns [7]. Acting on them would make "22K916" offer the same protection in every district.