BIS issues a ‘stop marking’ notice to IDI

According to a report in the Indian Express on April 3rd, Indian diamond Institute (IDI) has been issued a ‘stop marking’ notice by the Bureau of Indian standards (BIS) for issuing incorrect hallmarking certificates to a city based jeweller. The institute has been issued the above notice for marking 22 carat jewellery as 18 carat. Following which the jeweler to whom the jewellery belonged, reported BIS about the inaccurate certificates by IDI.

"It seems the assayer marked the items correctly but the mistake took place at the marker's level. He may have made a mistake while marking the items of jewellery with laser equipment," said a BIS official, who is in charge of the hallmarking division. IDI director Sameer Joshi confirmed that the institute had received the ‘stop marking’ notice. IDI is known to be making internal changes in its man & process management.

BIS's nodal officer for hallmarking in the western region, S L Palkar said, "We will now have to send our own auditors and check their equipment and process. We will also check up on corrective action taken by the IDI. We have introduced one more step in reverification of the process. After that we will reconsider giving them a go-ahead with the hallmarking process. It seems the mistake was due to an oversight. The 'stop marking' notice was issued as a penal action.''