Centre set to table Jan Vishwas 2.0 in Lok Sabha: First-time offenders to get ‘Improvement Notice’, not penalty

In her Budget speech on February 1, 2025, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had promised to bring in Jan Vishwas 2.0. “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,” she had said.

In the proposed Bill, it is learnt that a new provision has been added to define the “improvement notice” and to make it applicable to multiple sections. This marks a shift from the “penalise on first detection” approach of Jan Vishwas 1.0 (enacted into law in 2023) to an “inform–correct–penalise” model in Jan Vishwas 2.0 (the 2025 Bill) and aligns with the government’s objective of promoting ease of doing business and trust-based regulation, while maintaining deterrence for repeated violations, said a source.

As per the proposed amendments, no penalty will be imposed for first offence and an improvement notice will be served instead, giving an opportunity to rectify the non-compliance within a stipulated period, it is learnt. Penalties apply from second offence onwards, and the amount will be the same as it was for first offence in Jan Vishwas 1.0. Fines will increase for subsequent offences, subject to a maximum cap depending on the Sections.

This structure retains full decriminalisation while adding a formal improvement notice mechanism to encourage voluntary compliance before financial sanctions are applied, thereby reducing fear of punitive action for minor, unintentional mistakes, said a source.

In his Independence Day speech Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “In our country, there are such laws that can put people in jail for very small things — you would be shocked. No one has really 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.”

Earlier the government had enacted the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023, to decriminalise several offences under various laws. For instance, Section 41 of the Food Corporations Act, 1964 was omitted by the Act. As per the original provisions of Section 41, the use of FCI’s name in any prospectus or advertisement without its consent in writing, was punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may go up to Rs 1,000, or both.

However, it was removed by the Jan Vishwas Act. Similarly, the provision of imprisonment up to 6 months was removed from the Section 33 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 for tree felling or damage caused by cattle in protected forests, and Rs 500 fine was kept.

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