CHENNAI: A PIL has been filed in the Madras High Court challenging the constitutional validity of certain provisions of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Act, 2016. A bench of Justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad, before which the petition from Kalyan Jewellers came up for hearing, ordered notice returnable by August 27.
Petitioner said the BIS Act 2016, aims to improve the erstwhile BIS Act of 1986 in ensuring quality standards for jewellery and protecting the consumer. Certain provisions of the new law, however, impose disproportionate and arbitrary penalties on jewellers/licence holders.
They said the licence holder should remain responsible for conformance of the goods, articles, processes, systems or services carrying the standard mark. If the jewellery is found to be sub-standard, seller will be held responsible even if due precaution is taken to verify its quality, petitioner contended.