The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2025, introduced in Lok Sabha on August 18, expands India’s efforts to reform its vast regulatory system.

Building on the foundation of the Jan Vishwas Act, 2023, the new bill seeks to reduce the criminalisation of minor offences, rationalise penalties and create an environment where compliance is guided by trust rather than fear.

The bill amends 355 provisions across 16 central acts. Of these, the bill proposes to decriminalise 288 provisions and ease compliance in 67, spanning sectors as varied as banking, electricity, micro, small and medium enterprises, and municipal governance. The Jan Vishwas Act, 2023, had decriminalised 183 provisions across 42 central acts.

For now, the new bill has been referred to a select committee, which will identify gaps and seek expert consultation, if required. The committee is expected to submit a report by the first day of the next parliamentary session, in November-December, after which it will be taken up for discussion and voting.

The proposals are significant. But given India’s labyrinthine compliance and regulatory systems, the new bill addresses a critical if niche part of the challenge.

Four principal reforms

First, the new bill focuses on decriminalisation and rationalisation. Imprisonment clauses in several laws have been replaced with monetary penalties.

For example, under the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, the absence of sweepers without prior notice was earlier punishable with a month’s jail but now attracts a fine of Rs 500 fine. Similarly, under the Electricity Act, non-compliance with orders will result in penalties rather than imprisonment.

The bill also makes an important language change by substituting the phrase “punishable with fine” with “liable for a penalty”, reclassifying offences as civil rather than criminal.

In several instances, fines have been increased. The penalty for failing to muzzle ferocious dogs in public under the Delhi Municipal Act has increased from Rs 50 to Rs 1,000, while fines under the Electricity Act have risen tenfold, from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. The guiding principle is proportionality: businesses and individuals should not face imprisonment for relatively minor lapses, but penalties must still be high enough to encourage compliance.

Second, the bill continues the practice of warnings for first-time offenders, an approach introduced in the 2023 Act.

For instance, under the Motor Vehicles Act, ignoring pollution norms or failing to give way to emergency vehicles will now lead to a warning on the first offence, with penalties for repeat violations.

Similarly, under the Delhi Municipal Council Act, remedial notices are linked to penalties, ensuring that leniency does not lead to a lack of accountability. An encroachment notice to a street vendor is an example of a remedial notice.

Third, the bill introduces adjudicating authorities. Providing for specific adjudicating officers supported by an appellate framework, reduces reliance on criminal courts. This lowers litigation costs, prevents minor compliance matters from clogging up judicial systems and ensures swifter resolution.

Finally, the bill mandates automatic revisions of penalties, with fines set to increase by 10% every three years. This eliminates the need for frequent amendments, ensures penalties are effective in real terms and provides predictability for businesses planning long-term operations.

Regulatory impact assessment

Though ambitious and welcome, the Bill omits an important element, perhaps because it is not in its remit: regulatory impact assessments.

These are a widely accepted global practice, particularly in the wealthy countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, that are used to evaluate the costs, benefits and unintended consequences of proposed reforms before implementation.

In India, the Planning Commission had recommended that regulatory impact assessments form a part of the larger effort of decriminalisation in 2011. Regulatory impact assessments could have mapped the concerns faced by businesses, such as excessive criminalisation, overlapping filings, or compliance costs, and suggested reforms on a sector-by-sector or ministry-by-ministry basis.

Most importantly, regulatory impact assessments would ensure consultation with stakeholders, such as entrepreneurs, manufacturers and exporters-importers, making reforms more grounded and reducing the likelihood of unintended burdens.

Also, some laws with severe imprisonment clauses remain untouched. The basis for selecting provisions to amend is unclear, which creates uncertainty, a factor that could be as damaging to investor sentiment as the compliance burden.

Broader reform agenda

The Jan Vishwas reforms are significant but must be seen in context: India still has more than 1,500 laws, 69,000 compliances, 6,600 filings, and 26,000 imprisonment clauses.

Rationalisation in more sectors is long overdue.

Company law, for instance, is particularly punitive, with 176 provisions carrying imprisonment ranging from three months to 10 years. The mining sector is another example, with over 700 compliance provisions, many linked to imprisonment. At a time when India is seeking private investment in critical minerals to drive its clean energy transition, such a dense regulatory environment could discourage potential investors.

States also have an important role to play. Madhya Pradesh enacted its own Jan Vishwas Act in 2024 while Haryana is preparing a similar law. Businesses will continue to face uncertainty and duplication across jurisdictions unless states move beyond decriminalisation to simplify and standardise compliance processes.

Decriminalisation and beyond

The Jan Vishwas initiative targets only criminal provisions but India’s compliance-burden burden is much broader. Much of the burden stems from the sheer volume and complexity of compliance requirements, where even technical lapses are penalised.

India’s regulatory framework has historically been shaped by mistrust, with fear of non-compliance overshadowing entrepreneurial ambition.

The Jan Vishwas Bill, 2025 attempts to alter this equation by replacing criminal punishment with proportionate penalties and signalling a shift from suspicion to trust. But trust cannot rest on decriminalisation alone. It requires a broader agenda of deregulation, simplification and evidence-based policymaking.

Combining these elements with Jan Vishwas could help build a framework that reduces compliance burdens, improves regulatory certainty and strengthens confidence among entrepreneurs, investors and citizens.

Ankeetaa Mahesshwari is an Associate Fellow, while Nathishia Chandy and Siddharth Jha are Research Assistants at Pahlé India Foundation, a New Delhi-based policy think tank.

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