India, Sept. 3 -- India's journey toward regulatory reform and trust-based governance has taken another significant step forward with the introduction of the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2025, in the Lok Sabha. The Jan Vishwas Act 2023 was India's first consolidated effort to decriminalise minor offences across multiple laws. The new bill builds on the 2023 Act to further India's transition from a punitive regulatory framework to one focused on ease of doing business and ease of living. The Bill proposes to amend 355 provisions across 16 central Acts administered by 10 ministries and departments. Some of these criminal provisions originate from the colonial period, but most are from the socialist era when there was a deep-seated suspicion of business. Consequently, small errors or procedural lapses could result in criminal prosecution. This resulted in an environment of mistrust and rent-seeking, which hindered economic growth. The current system of over-criminalisation burdens the judiciary (already contending with over 50 million pending cases) and incentivises corrupt practices. It creates a fear-driven compliance culture and an unfriendly business environment, particularly for MSMEs. For instance, under the Central Silk Board Act, 1948, furnishing false statements (which could be a minor mistake) can still invite up to one year's imprisonment. Similarly, the Apprentices Act, 1961, penalised overtime requests with fines, escalating to criminal records. The Bill represents a shift in India's regulatory enforcement philosophy, moving away from punitive criminal justice toward progressive administrative compliance. Under the existing framework, minor regulatory infractions across various sectors triggered criminal penalties, including imprisonment. This created a climate where technical lapses or inadvertent compliance failures could result in arrest, criminal records, and court proceedings. Business owners are under the constant threat of criminalisation, which, in most cases, were essentially administrative oversights rather than intentional wrongdoings. The approach of the Bill has three elements. Firstly, it replaces criminal "fines" with civil "penalties", shifting 288 provisions from criminal prosecution to administrative enforcement. Violations become "contraventions" instead of "offences," stripping away imprisonment clauses and criminal sanctions for minor defaults. The legislation empowers regulatory authorities to impose monetary penalties through administrative channels rather than dragging cases through criminal courts. Secondly, it uses a graduated approach for contraventions. It introduces "improvement notices" as formal warnings for first-time offenders across 76 offences under 10 Acts. Improvement notices provide offenders an opportunity to rectify non-compliance within stipulated timeframes. This replaces the immediate imposition of fines and initiation of criminal proceedings under the current system. This creates a trust-based framework, acknowledging that many breaches stem from ignorance or inadvertent oversight. Subsequent violations attract proportionate penalties with graduated increases for repeat violations. Finally, the Bill empowers designated officers to adjudicate penalties through administrative processes rather than judicial proceedings. This removes reliance on courts for minor compliance issues, reducing the burden on India's overburdened judiciary while enabling faster resolution. The new system establishes adjudicating officers and appellate authorities to handle penalty impositions administratively. The changes proposed to the Legal Metrology Act (LMA), 2009, in the Bill illustrate the approach. The Act relates to rules for weights, measures, and commercial standards. The previous Jan Vishwas Act 2023 had removed some of the criminal provisions, but many remained. This bill decriminalises 22 provisions that previously carried imprisonment penalties. A key change is the complete elimination of Section 40, which imposed up to two years imprisonment for obstructing legal metrology officers, extending to five years for repeat offenses. The vaguely-worded Section 40, which criminalised "obstructing Director, Controller or legal metrology officer", became a tool for rent-seeking. This section is entirely omitted, effectively decriminalising what was once considered a serious regulatory offence. The Bill seeks to remove imprisonment altogether from 11 provisions in the Act. It proposes graduated escalation, instead of criminal prosecution, for provisions covering failure to obtain approval for a model of weight or measure (Section 32), non-registration by importers (Section 38), import of non-standard weight or measure (Section 39), and unlicensed manufacturing (Section 45). First-time violators receive improvement notices, providing opportunities for voluntary compliance without immediate penalties. Subsequent violations trigger penalties that double with each repeat offence, capped at Rs.5 lakh. This graduated penalty structure throughout the reformed provisions creates predictable consequences for violations instead of debilitating criminal proceedings. Further, for another seven provisions, fines have been replaced by improvement notices for first-time violations. Changes proposed in section 25, governing non-standard weight usage, exemplify this graduated framework: Improvement notices for initial violations, and administrative penalties thereafter. Similar structures apply to manufacturing non-standard weights (Section 27), documentation failures (Section 31), and service provision violations (Section 35). However, the Bill maintains a strategic distinction for three critical sections involving deliberate deception. Weight alteration with intent to deceive (Section 26), fraudulent short deliveries (Section 30), and manufacturing packages with quantity errors (Section 36(2)) retain imprisonment, but only for third and subsequent violations. We think this is justifiable. The Bill signals a move from a fear-driven compliance culture rooted in socialist-era criminalisation to a progressive trust-based regulatory framework that recognises the difference between inadvertent oversights and wilful violations. By replacing immediate criminal prosecution with improvement notices and graduated penalties, this legislation lays the groundwork to shift from a punishment-first to a correction-first approach....