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Jan Vishwas Amendment Bill introduced in Lok Sabha, sent to select committee
Among its many provisions, the bill proposes a new mechanism of issuing an ‘improvement notice’ to first-time offenders instead of imposing an immediate penalty
The Union government on Monday introduced the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2025, in the Lok Sabha, which was subsequently referred to a select committee for further deliberations. Union minister Piyush Goyal, who tabled the bill, said the legislation seeks to amend “certain enactments for decriminalising and rationalising offences to further enhance trust-based governance for ease of living and doing business.”
The select committee is expected to submit its report on the first day of the next parliamentary session. Among its many provisions, the bill proposes a new mechanism of issuing an “improvement notice” to first-time offenders instead of imposing an immediate penalty. Monetary penalties would apply only in cases of repeat offences.
The move comes after the Union Cabinet cleared the proposal last week, following a year-long process initiated by the commerce and industry ministry on September 28, 2024. The bill builds on the Jan Vishwas Act, 2023, which took effect on August 11, 2023. That law had decriminalised and rationalised certain minor offences across 42 central legislations, scrapped 183 criminal provisions spanning 19 ministries and departments, and aimed to reduce outdated legal hurdles in line with global business and technological trends.
One of the main objectives of the Act was to remove provisions in law that no longer serve the evolving technological and business environment, especially in a global context.
Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her Budget speech on February 1, 2025, had already signalled the next step, “In the Jan Vishwas Act 2023, more than 180 legal provisions were decriminalised. Our government will now bring up the Jan Vishwas Bill 2.0 to decriminalise more than 100 provisions in various laws.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also underscored the importance of the reform in his Independence Day address. “In our country, there are such laws that can put people in jail for tiny things — you would be shocked. No one has paid attention to them. I have been pursuing this because these unnecessary laws that put our country’s citizens behind bars should be abolished. We had introduced a Bill in Parliament earlier, and we have brought it again this time.”
