20 NDA-ruled states adopt Jan Vishwas reforms to decriminalise minor offences
Twenty state governments have implemented reforms modelled on the central Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023, replacing imprisonment for minor regulatory and compliance offences with monetary penalties.
Chhattisgarh's Legislative Assembly passed the Chhattisgarh Ease of Doing Business Act, 2026, introducing a risk-based regulatory framework — the first state-level law of its kind — and had earlier decriminalised 163 provisions across eight state Acts through its own Jan Vishwas legislation.
Assam enacted its own Jan Vishwas Bill, favouring adjudication and monetary penalty over criminal prosecution for minor compliance lapses.
The reforms extend decriminalisation from the central statute book to state-level laws governing business, municipal administration, and regulatory compliance, marking one of the largest coordinated state-level deregulation exercises to date.
Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023
The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023 (Act No. 18 of 2023) is a central law that amended 42 Acts administered by 19 ministries and departments to decriminalise 183 minor provisions. Its underlying philosophy is that the severity of punishment should be proportionate to the gravity of the offence — trivial or technical lapses should attract civil penalties, not imprisonment or the threat of criminal prosecution, which historically deterred small businesses and citizens from ordinary compliance.
Key Details
- Received Presidential assent on 11 August 2023.
- Decriminalisation methods included: removing imprisonment/fine altogether for some provisions, removing imprisonment while retaining or enhancing fines for others, converting imprisonment-plus-fine to a civil penalty, and introducing compounding of offences.
- Covers sectors such as agriculture, environment, media, trade, and commerce at the central level.
State governments are now replicating this central framework for state subjects (municipal law, shops and establishments, local business regulation) that fall outside the scope of the 2023 central Act, effectively extending the decriminalisation philosophy across the federal structure.
Legislative Competence and the Seventh Schedule (Article 246)
Article 246 of the Constitution distributes law-making power between Parliament and state legislatures through the Seventh Schedule's three lists: Union List (List I), State List (List II), and Concurrent List (List III). Criminal law generally falls under Entry 1 of the Concurrent List, meaning both Parliament and state legislatures can legislate on it, subject to the repugnancy rule under Article 254 where a state law conflicting with a central law on the same subject may require Presidential assent to prevail.
Key Details
- Many regulatory subjects relevant to these reforms — local government, public health, and state-specific business/trade regulation — fall within the State List, giving states independent authority to decriminalise offences under their own statutes.
- Where a state Jan Vishwas-style law reduces penalties under a state Act, no central concurrence is needed since the state is legislating within its own competence.
The parallel state-level Jan Vishwas legislations illustrate cooperative federalism in practice — states are not merely implementing a central mandate but independently exercising legislative competence to decriminalise offences under state statutes.
Risk-Based Regulation and Prior Decriminalisation Efforts
Risk-based regulation categorises businesses or compliance requirements by risk level (low, medium, high) to calibrate the intensity of government oversight — reducing routine inspections and discretionary enforcement ("inspector raj") for low-risk activities while retaining strict scrutiny for high-risk ones. This approach builds on an earlier decriminalisation exercise under company law.
Key Details
- The Companies (Amendment) Act, 2019 recategorised 16 offences under the Companies Act, 2013 as civil defaults, and introduced the In-House Adjudication Mechanism (Section 454) for penalty imposition without approaching the National Company Law Tribunal.
- The Companies (Amendment) Act, 2020 decriminalised a further 54 compoundable offences, retaining criminal liability only for fraud-related and serious offences.
Chhattisgarh's risk-based Ease of Doing Business Act, 2026 applies the same categorisation logic used in company law reforms — differentiated compliance burden by risk — to a broader set of state-level business regulations.
- Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023: Act No. 18 of 2023; Presidential assent on 11 August 2023.
- Decriminalised 183 provisions across 42 central Acts administered by 19 ministries/departments.
- Chhattisgarh's earlier state Jan Vishwas law decriminalised 163 provisions across 8 state Acts.
- Chhattisgarh Ease of Doing Business Act, 2026: first state-level risk-based regulatory framework in India.
- Companies (Amendment) Act, 2020 decriminalised 54 compoundable offences, building on 16 offences recategorised as civil defaults in 2019.
- Criminal law falls under Entry 1 of the Concurrent List (List III), Seventh Schedule to the Constitution.