Govt moves bill to decriminalise laws for businesses, individuals

NEW DELHI: Govt on Friday moved a fresh bill to decriminalise provisions across 79 central laws as part of its efforts to make life simpler for businesses and individuals.

Govt officials said along with amendments to the Companies Act, which are currently pending in Parliament, as well as the new income tax law, the overall decriminalisation exercise now covers over 1,000 provisions.

The amendments cover laws as diverse as Damodar Valley Corporation to the ones governing road transport corporations and Central Silk Board and New Delhi Municipal Corporation.

For instance, violations related to making of rules and regulations for road transport corporations will no longer attract jail terms. Similarly, some of the offences related to “mischief” caused in the development or maintenance of a national highway, will not face imprisonment.

Same is the case with some of the offences under The Slum Areas (Improvement and Clearance) Act, 1956 as well as the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulations) Act, DDA Act and the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act.

An overhaul of the 153-year-old Cattle Trespass Act will decriminalise key offences, replace jail terms with financial penalties and route collected fines to animal welfare. The definition of cattle, so far limited to bovines, is being expanded to include camels, buffaloes, horses, pigs, sheep and goats.

Under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, for manufacturing or sale of spurious cosmetics, instead of one year jail, there will be a fine that can be extended up to three times the value of the seized product. Govt has proposed to reduce the jail term for interfering with seized items, such as food and vehicles, under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, from a maximum of six months to three months.

It also seeks to carry out 20 amendments under the Motor Vehicle Act, to relax some compliances and resolve legal ambiguities. These include, allowing vehicle registration throughout the state instead of at a particular jurisdiction, providing a grace period of 30 days after the expiry of the licence, during which the licence will remain effective.

In all, 784 provisions are proposed to be amended under the bill, of which 717 provisions are being decriminalised and in the case of 67 provisions, the idea is to make life simpler.

The bill proposes to remove imprisonment in 57 provisions and fines in 158 provisions. Also, imprisonment is proposed to be reduced in 17 provisions, and imprisonment and fines are proposed to be converted to a penalty in 113 provisions.



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