Chandigarh, July 15 -- The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on Monday tabled the anti-sacrilege bill in the Punjab assembly, proposing punishment up to life imprisonment for sacrilegious acts against religious scriptures. Chief minister Bhagwant Mann introduced the Punjab Prevention of Offences Against Holy Scriptures Bill 2025 in the Vidhan Sabha on the third day of the special assembly session. The bill mandates strict punishment, extending up to life imprisonment, for the desecration of holy scriptures, including Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the Bhagavad Gita, the Bible and the Quran. This is the third attempt by the Punjab assembly to enact a bill on sacrilege issues, seeking harsher punishment for perpetrators. In 2016 and 2018, the SAD-BJP government and later the Congress government, respectively, passed the bills in the assembly. On both occasions, the bills were returned by the President without assent. According to the draft of the bill, the minimum punishment for sacrilege will be imprisonment not less than 10 years, which may extend to life imprisonment, and shall also be liable to pay a fine of Rs.5 lakh, which may extend up to Rs.10 lakh. In case of an attempt to commit an offence, the act will carry a punishment of imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than three years. "This term may extend to five years, and shall also be liable to pay a fine which may extend up to Rs.3 lakh," the bill reads. The provisions of this act shall be in addition to and not in derogation of the provisions of any other law for the time being in force, the draft reads. The 'offence' means any sacrilege, damage, destruction, de-facing, disfiguring, de-colouring, de-filing, decomposing, burning, breaking or tearing of any holy scripture, or part thereof, the bill introduced on Monday reads further. The bill says the offences punishable under this shall be cognisable, non-bailable and non-compoundable, triable by the court of session. "The investigation of the offence(s) punishable under this act shall be conducted by the police officer, not below the rank of deputy superintendent," it adds. Upon the introduction of the bill, leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa described the issue as a serious one and urged speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan to hold the discussion on the bill on Tuesday, the concluding day of the session. To this, CM Mann also asked the speaker to consider Bajwa's plea positively. The speaker adjourned the session for 15 minutes before announcing that discussion on the bill will be held on Tuesday. Earlier, before the start of the session at 2 pm, the state-specific bill was cleared by the cabinet at a meeting chaired by chief minister Mann at his official residence in Chandigarh. An official spokesperson said after the meeting that with the enactment of the law, the state seeks to further strengthen the ethos of communal harmony, brotherhood, peace, and amity. The spokesperson said while Sections 298 (hurting religious sentiments, carrying a jail term of 3 years, fine or both), 299 (outraging religious feelings carrying 3-year punishment, fine or both) and 300 (disturbing religious assemblies carrying 1-year jail, fine or both) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, address such issues, they do not prescribe sufficiently stringent penalties to serve as an effective deterrent. Considering the gravity of such offences and the imperative to preserve communal harmony and religious sanctity, the cabinet found it necessary to introduce state-specific legislation providing enhanced penalties, the spokesperson added. Until now, no specific legislation directly addressed offences against 'holy granths (books)', often resulting in leniency or evasion of serious action by culprits, said the spokesperson. The spokesperson said there is also a provision for setting up special courts to deal with cases pertaining to desecration of scriptures. There will be no parole for those guilty of sacrilege acts.This is not the first time that a specific law dealing with sacrilege acts has been brought in the state seeking a stricter punishment for perpetrators. In 2016, the then SAD-BJP government brought in the IPC (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2016 and CrPC (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2016, recommending life sentence for sacrilege acts against Guru Granth Sahib. The Centre later returned the bill, saying all religions should be treated equally given the secular nature of the Constitution. In 2018, the Amarinder Singh government passed two bills - the Indian Penal Code (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018, and the Code of Criminal Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018, which stipulated a punishment of up to life imprisonment for injury, damage or sacrilege to Guru Granth Sahib, Bhagavad Gita, Quran and the Bible. However, the bills did not get the President's assent. Acts of sacrilege against religious scriptures have been an emotive issue in Punjab and there has been a demand from various quarters for stringent punishment for the acts of sacrilege against religious texts. In 2015, the incident related to the theft of a 'bir' (copy) of Guru Granth Sahib from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala gurdwara, putting up handwritten sacrilegious posters in Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala and torn pages of the holy book found scattered at Bargari, had taken place in Faridkot. These incidents had led to anti-sacrilege protests. In the police firing on anti-sacrilege protesters in October 2015, two persons were killed in Behbal Kalan while some persons were injured at Kotkapura in Faridkot. Leader of Opposition and senior Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa criticised the AAP government for adopting an undemocratic approach on the issue of sacrilege. Bajwa said the "proposed bill on sacrilege was handed over to opposition parties just minutes before its scheduled discussion in the assembly." "This is not how legislative business is conducted, especially on issues that strike at the very heart of Punjab's socio-religious fabric," he said....