Government introduces Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill in Lok Sabha, refers to Select Committee

The Government has asked the Speaker of the House to refer the Bill to a Select Committee for review

The Government on Monday (August 18, 2025) introduced the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2025 in the Lok Sabha. The Bill aims to amend 355 provisions across 16 Central Acts to ease their applicability. Of these, 288 provisions are proposed to be decriminalised and 67 provisions are proposed to be amended to facilitate ‘Ease of Living’. 

The Government has asked the Speaker of the House to refer the Bill to a Select Committee for review.

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This Bill would build upon the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023, which was the first consolidated legislation to decriminalise minor offences across multiple Acts, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a release. 

The 2023 Act, notified on August 11 2023, decriminalised 183 provisions in 42 Central Acts administered by 19 Ministries or Departments.

The main features of the amendments proposed in the 2025 legislation is for first-time contraventions to only attract an advisory or warning for 76 offences under 10 Acts.

Further, the release said that imprisonment clauses for minor, technical or procedural defaults will be replaced with monetary penalties or warnings. The penalties, too, will be made “proportionate”, with penalties gradually increasing for repeated offences.