The Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016
- Citation
- Act No. 11 of 2016
- Jurisdiction
- IN
- Made by
- Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
- Instrument
- Act
- Status
- In force
What it requires (4 obligations)
Where the Central Government is of the opinion that it is necessary or expedient in the public interest, for the protection of human, animal or plant health, safety of the environment, prevention of unfair trade practices or national security, it may — after consulting the Bureau and by order published in the Official Gazette — notify goods or articles of a scheduled industry, or the essential requirements they must conform to, and direct that use of the Standard Mark under a licence or certificate of conformity is compulsory for them.
No date set Confirmed In force, dates fixed in published law
- Who it falls on
- Manufacturers, importers and sellers
- Products
- Textiles, apparel, home textiles, consumer products
- Markets
- IN
This is a POWER, not a standing duty — nothing is compulsory until an order is notified. "Scheduled industry" takes its meaning from the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951. In textiles this is the section the polyester and viscose fibre and yarn QCOs are made under. Each QCO is a separate Gazette notification with its own commodity list and commencement date, so whether a particular fibre, yarn or fabric is caught today is a question about the notifications and not about this Act.
Quoted from section 16(1), paragraphs (a) and (b) and the Explanation, read from the TEXT bundle bitstream of India Code item 496116.
Once goods are notified under section 16(1), no person may manufacture, import, distribute, sell, hire, lease, store or exhibit them for sale either without a Standard Mark except under a valid licence, or — even holding a licence — apply a Standard Mark unless the goods actually conform to the relevant standard or prescribed essential requirements.
No date set Confirmed In force, dates fixed in published law
- Who it falls on
- Manufacturers, importers and sellers
- Products
- Textiles, apparel, home textiles, consumer products
- Markets
- IN
Limb (b) is the one that catches licensed manufacturers: holding a licence is not a defence to marking non-conforming goods. The list of verbs reaches storing and exhibiting, so a warehouse holding notified goods without the mark is inside this before anything is sold.
Quoted from section 17(1), paragraphs (a) and (b).
No person may claim publicly — through advertisements, sales promotion leaflets, price lists or the like — that their goods conform to an Indian standard, or make such a declaration on the goods themselves, without holding a valid certificate of conformity or licence from the Bureau or another authority approved by the Central Government under section 16(2).
No date set Confirmed In force, dates fixed in published law
- Who it falls on
- Manufacturers, importers and sellers
- Products
- Textiles, apparel, home textiles, consumer products
- Markets
- IN
This one does not depend on a section 16 notification at all: claiming conformity to an Indian standard without a licence is prohibited whether or not the commodity has been made compulsory. It reaches marketing copy, catalogues and price lists as well as the product, so "conforms to IS ____" on a tech pack or a listing is the exposure.
Quoted from section 17(2).
A licence holder remains responsible at all times for the conformance of goods carrying the Standard Mark. A distributor or seller must ensure that goods carrying the Standard Mark were purchased from a certified body or licence holder, and before goods are sold, offered or exhibited for sale the seller must ensure they bear the labels and marking details the Bureau specifies and that marking and labelling on the product or its covering is displayed in the manner the Bureau specifies.
No date set Confirmed In force, dates fixed in published law
- Who it falls on
- Manufacturers, importers and sellers
- Products
- Textiles, apparel, home textiles, consumer products
- Markets
- IN
The duty is split deliberately across the chain: conformance stays with the licence holder, provenance falls on the distributor or seller, and presentation of the marking falls on the seller. A buyer of marked goods therefore has a duty of their own — to have bought from a certified body or licence holder — which is not discharged by the mark being present.
Quoted from section 18(1), 18(2) and 18(3), paragraphs (a) and (b).
This is a register, not advice. It records what an instrument says and when it applies. Whether it applies to a particular company, product or shipment is a question for somebody who knows that business, and the answer is frequently not what the summary above would suggest.
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