Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday directed the union government to submit details related to hallmarking of gold jewellery and posted the next hearing in this regard to September 6.
The High Court was hearing a petition by AP Bullion, Gold and Diamond Merchants Association challenging the recent directive of centre making hallmarking of gold jewellery mandatory. The petitioner had sought a stay order on the centre’s directive.
Hearing the petition, a division bench comprising Chief Justice A.K. Goswami and N. Jayasuriya directed the centre to submit details of hallmarking gold jewellery. The bench assured that it will issue an interim order based on details submitted by the centre.
Petitioner’s counsel Muvva Ravindra argued that the union government’s directive is unilateral and lacks clarity. He submitted that AP has around 50,000 of the total five lakh gold merchants in the country. Nearly 1,000 crore gold ornaments will need to be hallmarked, but only a few centres are there for hallmarking ornaments; that too mainly in big cities.
The counsel further pointed out that due to prevalence of Covid-19 and imposition of lockdown, it had become impossible to hallmark gold ornaments within the deadline stipulated by the centre. He underlined that there is no clarity in the union government’s directive in case the hallmark is lost during polishing of gold ornaments.
