CM introduces amendment bill to decriminalise minor offences for EoDB

Jammu, Apr 2: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Thursday introduced the “Jammu and Kashmir Jan Vishwas Second (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2026” in the Legislative Assembly.

Chief Minister is also the Minister in-charge of J&K Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs.

The Bill to amend certain enactments, decriminalising and rationalising offences for ease of living and ease of doing business and also to repeal certain enactments (L A Bill No 07 of 2026) aims at aligning the legal framework of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir with the national initiative on decriminalization of minor offences viz., the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023 enacted by the Parliament.

The Bill, which has already been published in an extraordinary issue of the Official Gazette, also aims at ensuring the compliance of BRAP (Business Reforms Action Plan) agenda to reduce the compliance burden on businesses, promote ease of doing business and case of living.

The Jammu and Kashmir Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Ordinance, 2025 (Ordinance No 1 of 2025), as per statements of objects and reasons, was promulgated on December 16, 2025 to decriminalize minor offences of 5 Acts to achieve the specified objectives.

“In continuation to it, further exercise has been carried out to decriminalise minor offences across various laws to reduce the compliance burden on businesses, promote ease of doing business and ease of living. Accordingly, the Jammu and Kashmir Jan Vishwas Second (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2026 has been prepared inter alia amending 18 Acts of Jammu and Kashmir to substitute minor imprisonments by compounding of fine and also to increase fine, where meagre fine has been provided for violations, and no revision of same was effected till date,” it was spelt out explaining the rationale of Bill.

“Besides it, 19 Appropriation Acts of the Jammu and Kashmir and also the Jammu and Kashmir Obsolete Laws (Repeal) Act, 2010 are proposed to be repealed which have outlived their utility and are no more in use which is also initiative of the Government of India to repeal obsolete laws. The compliance of the issue is regularly being monitored by the Government of India under the agenda Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP),” stated the Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, while detailing the objective.