



Rajiv Memani: India is decriminalizing dozens of laws. Here's why it will let businesses and citizens breathe easier
With the introduction of the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill of 2026 (JV2), India’s government has made one thing unmistakably clear: the decriminalization of various actions covered by the country’s statute book is not a one-time gesture, but a sustained and serious programme of reform. Covering 79 Central Acts in a single sweep, the JV2 Bill follows the Jan Vishwas Act of 2023 and picks up where the Select Committee-examined 2025 bill left off. The ambition behind this exercise deserves recognition on its own terms.
Each line of amendment in a bill like this represents months of painstaking inter-ministerial deliberation, legal review and political negotiation. Changing even a single provision in a decades-old statute is a laborious process. Doing it together for 79 laws across 23 ministries is nothing short of a Herculean task.
What makes it worth doing becomes clear when you examine what the law actually said before this Bill arrived. The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act allowed a homebuyer—typically the aggrieved party in any real-estate dispute—to be imprisoned for up to one year for failing to comply with a procedural Appellate Tribunal order. The Metro Railways (Operation and Maintenance) Act made staging any “demonstration” near metro premises a criminal offence punishable with six months in jail.
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