Jan Vishwas Bill Passes: Govt Decriminalises 1,000 Provisions To Ease Compliance

New Delhi: A day after Parliament passed the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2026, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said that the government’s Jan Vishwas reforms have decriminalised over 1,000 provisions across 79 central laws to ease compliance and reduce the burden on courts. “The reforms would particularly benefit small businesses and traditional sectors such as handloom and coir, where compliance burdens had often led to litigation and corruption,” he said.

However, the commerce and industry ministry has urged all the departments to consider withdrawing pending court cases involving minor offences in light of Jan Vishwas amendment bill, as it would significantly reduce load on the judiciary and promote ease of living. “As per estimates, there are five crore pending court cases relating to minor offences, majority of which should have never gone to the courts,” Goyal said here while addressing the media about the bill.

The minister also said that the government is open to more suggestions to even further re-looking at all the laws at the central government level. “Around 12 states have come out with their own versions of Jan Vishwas bills, decriminalising state laws and I would encourage the rest of the states to follow the suit and consider decriminalising petty offences,” he said.

“We hope that these all can be resolved by the prosecutors by asking the courts to just close them on the basis of the new provisions so that a big relief can be given to past cases. It will be our request to the courts to take decision on those minor offences and end that,” Goyal said, adding that these 1,000 sections in some way or the other, some place or the other, nationally, regionally, were a source of uncertainty, a source of potential rent seeking and harassment and the government has removed all of that.

The bill proposes to remove imprisonment in 57 provisions and fines in 158 provisions. Also, imprisonment is proposed to be reduced in 17 provisions, and imprisonment and fine are proposed to be converted to a penalty in 113 provisions. It also proposes 67 amendments under the New Delhi Municipal Council Act, 1994, and the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, to facilitate ease of living.

“In the upcoming law, there is a greater case that in all these provisions, a review can be taken up. We will also be taking up with the law ministry and work out how it can be conveyed to the concerned departments,” Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Amardeep Singh Bhatia told reporters here.

“Penalties have been prescribed only for the first offence of violating standards of air pollution, but driving license will be suspended for three months. But stricter provisions will apply for subsequent violations. Similarly, for noise pollution also, it has been decriminalised for the first offence, with only a warning issued, while the usual provisions will apply for subsequent violations,” Bhatia added.