Is gold hallmarking mandatory in your district?
It covers 392 of India’s districts, not all of them — here is the phase-by-phase record, and how to check
Why it is phased at all
Hallmarking requires an assaying and hallmarking centre within reach of the jewellers who have to use one. You cannot compel a jeweller to hallmark every piece in a district where there is nowhere to get it done. So the Bureau of Indian Standards has extended the mandate in steps as testing capacity has been built out, starting with the districts that already had a centre.
That is the whole explanation, and it is worth understanding because it tells you what the absence of a hallmark in an uncovered district actually means: usually logistics, not evasion.
The phases, in order
Each phase adds districts to a cumulative list. Nothing is ever removed.
| Phase | Effective from | Districts added | Cumulative total |
|---|---|---|---|
| First | 23 June 2021 | — | 256 |
| Second | 4 April 2022 | 32 | 288 |
| Third | 8 September 2023 | 55 | 343 |
| Fourth | 5 November 2024 | 18 | 361 |
| Fifth | 31 July 2025 | 12 | 373 |
| Sixth | 2 March 2026 | 7 | 380 |
| Seventh | 3 August 2026 | 12 | 392 |
The seven districts added in the sixth phase were Rupnagar (Punjab), Banda (Uttar Pradesh), Beed (Maharashtra), Gomati (Tripura), Katihar (Bihar), Beawar (Rajasthan) and Neemuch (Madhya Pradesh). The twelve added in the seventh phase are spread across nine states — Assam, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
Why we do not publish the full list of 392
Because we could not verify it, and a district list you cannot rely on is worse than no list.
The authoritative list is the annexure to the hallmarking order, which is replaced wholesale each time it is consolidated. We could not load the BIS site to read the current annexure first-hand — it refused connection on repeated attempts — and reproducing 392 district names from secondary write-ups would mean asking you to trust our transcription of someone else’s transcription, on a question where being wrong has a real cost.
The totals and phase dates above are corroborated across government releases and trade reporting. The names are not something we are willing to retype. What follows is how to check your own district against the source instead.
How to check your district
- The order itself. The annexure to the Hallmarking of Gold Jewellery and Gold Artefacts Order lists every covered district and is the only list that governs. The relevant amendments are the Amendment Order 2026 (sixth phase) and the Third Amendment Order 2026 (seventh phase, effective 3 August 2026).
- BIS directly. bis.gov.in publishes the hallmarking district list and the register of hallmarking centres. If a centre is listed in your district, it is almost certainly covered.
- The BIS CARE app. Free, on Android and iOS. Primarily for verifying a HUID, but it is also the quickest route to a complaint if something does not check out.
- Ask the jeweller, and watch the answer. A registered jeweller in a covered district knows perfectly well that they are covered. Vagueness is informative.
What it means for you as a buyer
If your district is covered
A registered jeweller selling you unhallmarked gold jewellery is not supposed to be doing so. Ask why. Items under 2 grams are exempt, as are certain articles where hallmarking is physically impractical, so there are legitimate answers — but there should be an answer.
If your district is not covered
Hallmarking is voluntary there, and plenty of jewellers do it anyway. You can still ask for a hallmarked piece, and many shops will have them. What you should not do is read the absence of a mark as evidence of anything. Get the purity tested instead, and insist on a bill that states the purity, the net weight and the rate per gram used — which you should do in a covered district too.
Either way, check the rate you are being charged on the metal against the benchmark for the day. That is what the gold rate page is for, and the how we calculate page explains what sits between the benchmark and your bill.
Two things that are not district-dependent
HUID applies wherever hallmarking happens. Since 1 April 2023, any piece that is hallmarked must carry a six-character HUID alongside the BIS mark and the purity grade, regardless of district. Our hallmark and HUID guide covers how to read and verify one.
Silver is voluntary everywhere. There is no district phasing for silver because there is no mandate to phase — silver hallmarking remains voluntary across India. See the silver rate page.
This page has a shelf life
The count has gone 256, 288, 343, 361, 373, 380, 392 in five years, and it only moves one way. The figure on this page is correct as at 24 October 2026 and reflects the seventh phase. If you are reading this much later, assume more districts have been added and check the current order. We would rather tell you that than let the page quietly age.
Spotted a change before we did? Tell us — that is genuinely useful.
Sources: Press Information Bureau release on the sixth phase; trade and business reporting on the Third Amendment Order, 2026 for the seventh. Phase totals and dates are corroborated across multiple independent reports; the district names in the annexure were not verified first-hand because bis.gov.in was unreachable.