The Government of India has introduced the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2025, marking a significant push towards legal simplification and trust-based governance. Building on the 2023 legislation, the Bill seeks to decriminalise 288 offences and rationalise penalties across 16 central laws, reducing unnecessary criminal provisions that burden individuals and businesses.
With India’s courts struggling under 36 million pending cases, many linked to minor technical violations, the Bill aims to ease the judicial backlog by replacing jail terms with fines and improvement notices. Key sectors impacted include banking, transport, pharmaceuticals, textiles, and electricity.
The Bill introduces warnings for first-time offenders, periodic penalty revisions, and shifts from imprisonment to fines in many cases — creating a more business-friendly legal environment. This reform is expected to boost entrepreneurship, job creation, and economic growth.
Referred to a Lok Sabha Select Committee, the Bill represents a crucial move toward modernising India’s legal system, balancing accountability with ease of living, and paving the way for a more efficient governance framework.
