Jan Vishwas 2026 and the expanding drive for decriminalisation

The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2026, represents one of the most far-reaching attempts in recent years to rationalise India’s regulatory framework. Covering 784 provisions across 79 Central Acts administered by 23 ministries, the Bill significantly expands the scope of the Union government’s effort to reduce the criminalisation of regulatory non-compliance. Having been passed by the Rajya Sabha on April 2, 2026, it now awaits Presidential assent.

The legislation replaces the earlier Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2025, which was examined by a Select Committee of the Lok Sabha before being withdrawn in March 2026. In comparison, the 2026 Bill is substantially wider in scope. While the 2025 version proposed the decriminalisation of provisions across 17 Acts administered by 10 ministries, the current Bill adds 62 more Central Acts and expands the number of provisions examined within the previously covered statutes.

At its core, the Jan Vishwas exercise seeks to apply the principle of proportionality in punishment. The underlying premise is that not all instances of non-compliance warrant criminal prosecution or the threat of imprisonment. By recalibrating penalties for regulatory offences, the legislation attempts to strike a balance between ensuring compliance and reducing the burdens associated with criminal enforcement.

To achieve this, the Bill relies on several mechanisms of decriminalisation and rationalisation. First, many offences are reclassified from criminal offences to civil contraventions, typically by replacing imprisonment with monetary penalties. This shift removes the need for criminal prosecution in routine compliance matters, thereby easing pressure on the judicial system while reducing the risk of incarceration for relatively minor violations. Second, the Bill introduces graded penalties and compliance opportunities before punitive action is triggered. Third, offences that are considered redundant or outdated have been omitted altogether. Fourth, several offences have been made compoundable, allowing violations to be settled through the payment of prescribed sums rather than through criminal proceedings. Finally, in certain cases, monetary penalties have been enhanced and timelines introduced for their payment in order to retain a deterrent effect.

According to estimates released by the Press Information Bureau, the 2026 Bill proposes to reclassify 432 criminal offences as civil offences. It also compounds or reduces jail terms for 17 offences and removes imprisonment and/or fines entirely for 244 offences. In scale and ambition, the exercise marks a significant effort to modernise India’s regulatory architecture.

The breadth of the Bill is reflected in the wide range of sectors it touches. The legislation proposes amendments to laws governing industry, mining, coal, power, petroleum and natural gas, finance, transport and infrastructure, textiles, food safety and healthcare, as well as shipping and ports.

One notable development is the inclusion of several sectoral legislations that were previously outside the scope of the reform. In an earlier analysis published in Scroll.in, “With fines instead of jail terms, new bill aims to simplify legal compliance”, we had noted that key legislations regulating sectors such as mining had remained largely untouched in the earlier iteration of the Bill. The 2026 version addresses this gap by proposing amendments to seven laws governing coal and non-coal mining, as well as the petroleum and natural gas sectors.

Under the mining framework regulating offshore and onshore extraction, breaches of licence conditions that previously attracted criminal penalties are proposed to be treated as civil violations, albeit accompanied by significantly higher monetary penalties. At the same time, criminal liability is retained for more serious misconduct, such as illegal mining, suggesting an attempt to differentiate between routine compliance lapses and more serious violations.

The Bill also undertakes significant rationalisation in the transport sector. Amendments have been proposed to ten legislations governing shipping, ports and motorways. For instance, under the Inland Vessels Act, 2021, 20 of the 32 offences have been decriminalised. Across these statutes, offences have either been made compoundable or reclassified as civil contraventions.

Beyond sectoral regulation, the Jan Vishwas exercise also seeks to make laws more citizen-centric by easing certain everyday compliance requirements. Amendments have been proposed to nearly 45 provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.

Similarly, amendments to the Railways Act, 1989, introduce a conditional decriminalisation framework. Offenders are first given the opportunity to settle violations by paying a prescribed penalty. Criminal consequences, including imprisonment or fines, arise only if the penalty order is not complied with. Offences such as travelling without a valid ticket, unauthorised occupation of berths, and hawking goods without authorisation fall within this framework.

Changes proposed to the Metro Railways (Operation and Maintenance) Act, 2002, follow a similar approach. Activities such as causing nuisance while intoxicated, conducting demonstrations, unauthorised sale of goods within metro premises, or defacing public notices are proposed to be treated as civil violations attracting monetary penalties. In cases where imprisonment provisions remain, extreme punishments such as life imprisonment have been rationalised.

While the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2026, is an ambitious and necessary reform, its scale raises important questions. The framework guiding which offences are decriminalised remains largely unclear, risking an ad hoc approach driven by administrative discretion rather than consistent principles.

This inconsistency is also visible in the design of penalties. While some statutes include clear timelines and consequences for delay, others do not, weakening the overall coherence of the reform.

Equally, assessing success remains a challenge. Goals such as improving the ‘ease of doing business’ and ‘ease of living’ require measurable benchmarks. Without these, it will be difficult to evaluate impact or determine the need for course correction.

Ultimately, the success of the Jan Vishwas initiative will depend not just on the number of provisions amended, but on the clarity of its guiding principles and the rigour with which its outcomes are implemented and assessed.

Nathishia Chandy and Siddharth Jha are Research Assistants while Ankeetaa Mahesshwari is Regional Director, West at Pahlé India Foundation, a Delhi based think-tank; Views presented are personal.