Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2025

The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2025, was introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend 16 Central Acts, decriminalising and rationalising certain offences and penalties. This follows the Jan Vishwas Act, 2023, which decriminalised 183 provisions across 42 central acts.

Objective

• Enhance trust-based governance for ease of living and doing business.
• Address the overreach of criminal law beyond core criminal justice areas.

Issues with Current Laws

• High punishments for minor offences, like milking a cow on the street.
• Over 1,536 business-related laws carry imprisonment clauses.
• Excessive criminalisation burdens the legal system with over 3.6 crore pending criminal cases in district courts.

Proposals of the Bill

• Amend 355 provisions, decriminalising 288 to ease business operations.
• Amend the 67 provisions to facilitate ease of living.
• Applicable Acts include: Reserve Bank of India Act, Drugs and Cosmetics Act, Motor Vehicles Act, Electricity Act, among others.

Key Features

• Introduce "warning" and "improvement notice" for first-time offenders in 76 offences.
• Replace imprisonment clauses with penalties for minor, technical defaults.
• Rationalise penalties with a 10% increase every three years for repeated offences.

The Bill is currently under review by the Select Committee of the Lok Sabha, expected to report by the next session.