You May Not Go To Prison For Minor Offenses In Delhi

Pay Fine for Minor Offenses 

In capital city of India, the Government of Delhi is proposing a role model legislation in decriminalization of various offenses, for which earlier the offenders would normally be held in prison.  It’s by drafting a JAN VISHWAS BILL 2025, to abolish Jail Term for dozens of minor offenses. Offenses like:

• Damage to Delhi Jal Board pipelines
• Operating in Government Mandis without an operating license

The prime objective of decriminalizing the offenses is to promote ease of doing business, and this spans to various other departments as well namely tourism, labour, taxes etc. The Delhi government legislation in law reforms by taking steps to decriminalize several offences is derived from the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions Act) I, 2023 passed by Parliament of India.  This act notified on August 11, 2023, has decriminalized 183 provisions in 42 central acts administered by 19 ministries or departments.

What is the Objective of This Reform

The decriminalization includes essentially those laws that impact daily lives of small businesses, thereby the government has intended to promote opportunities without fear of being under fear of criminal prosecution, to small businesses and entrepreneurs.

The technicality lies here:

• A criminal file is technically form of criminal punishment and thereby creating a record of offense. The background of having a criminal record is very much a roadblock to individuals, in the nation or society where the emphasis is to weed out crimes and create a safer environment free from criminals causing harm to nation in this digitally driven world. A fine for criminal offense is more oppressive than just being a mere penalty.
• Civil penalties are of non-criminal in nature, and its monetary punishments are enforced without prosecution, although with an underlying recovery and arrears.
• With the new legislation, the criminal offenses that essentially cause punishments in form of fines or short-term imprisonment, are likely to be dealt with civil penalties.
• The law reforms is citied to be citizen centric measures, wherein the violators of such crimes will now be dealt with civil penalties that will cause monetary recoveries, collection of arrears, arbitration of civil nature, and not a factor to create more criminals and crowded jails.