In one of India’s largest-ever legislative reviews, 717 offenses that might have come with a steep fine or even jail time have been decriminalized.
Called the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, the aim is for a shift away from excessive criminalization to help create a more relaxed business environment and easier living.
Reporting generally, prison sentences have been amended to fines, while steep fines have been amended to warnings.
For good or ill, when a government criminalizes anything, such as hawking goods on the street without a license, it instantly creates hundreds or thousands of criminals. This naturally comes with all the burden on society that criminals come with: bureaucratic burden on the prison and courts, severe disruption to family life, and societal baggage in the form of difficult-to-employ ex cons.
In some cases this will be unavoidable, such as property and violent crime, but non-violent, victimless crimes, of which in India there were many, can be argued to be a net-negative on society.
The Jan Vishwas Act changes 1,000 provisions in 79 of the most fundamental pieces of legislation in the country, such as the Reserve Bank of India Act, which established the country’s central bank, the Food Safety and Standards Act, Delhi Municipal Council Act, Motor Vehicles Act, and so on.
The idea was to make India a more competitive economy and to make compliance with regulations easier, more straightforward, and most importantly, non-criminal.
Additionally, the parliament (Lok Sabah) wanted to see a state of affairs where the severity of the punishment is commensurate with the severity of the offence, and an analytical committee examined stakeholder feedback, industry consultation, and comparison with similar legislatures to grade the various offenses in question.
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According to the Financial Express, many of India’s central pieces of legislation haven’t been reviewed in 20 or even 30 years. Even when some had, often their penal component had not been.
The Jan Vishwas Act of 2023 began this process, when some 183 offenses were decriminalized. Then a joint parliamentary committee agreed to expend the effort.
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Key measures included the replacement of imprisonment with monetary penalties or warnings; graded enforcement mechanisms, including warnings for first-time offenders; and rationalization of fines and penalties in proportion to the nature of the offence.
The Act also provides for the appointment of adjudicating officers and appellate authorities whose job it is to facilitate speedy disposal of cases and reduce the litigation burden on courts.
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