Context:

• In 2024, the Prime Minister of India, while addressing the Director Generals of Police conference, advocated replacing coercive enforcement (“danda”) with data-driven governance to prioritise citizens, dignity, and justice.
• This vision has culminated in the Jan Vishwas framework, aimed at large-scale decriminalisation of minor offences and improving ease of living and doing business.

The Jan Vishwas Project - Scope and Significance:

• Largest decriminalisation exercise:
  • It reviewed over 950 laws leading to removal of over 12,500 criminal compliance provisions.
  • It covers both citizens and enterprises, making it one of the world’s largest decriminalisation reforms.
• Key legislative and policy measures:
  • Passage of the Jan Vishwas Bill.
  • Amendments to the Companies Act.
  • Notification of Labour Codes.
  • Identification and removal of obsolete laws.
• Illustrative reforms:
  • Removal of jail provisions for ticketless railway travel, minor factory compliance issues (canteen distance, spittoons, registers), publishing and reporting lapses, and minor traffic violations.
  • For example, prescribing jail for cheque bouncing accounts for 43 lakh cases out of total 5-crore case backlog in courts.

Structural Problem - Over-Criminalisation of Compliance:

• Cascade effect of jail provisions:
  • A single criminal provision in a law can generate thousands of compliance requirements via subordinate legislation.
  • For example, the repealed Factories Act created more than 8,500 jail-linked compliances from one provision.
• Role of administrative State: Use of 21 regulatory instruments (notifications, circulars, SOPs, etc.), and creation of 41 types of compliance obligations (licenses, registers, inspections, etc.).
• Case study: Poultry farm guidelines (2021) used provisions under the Environment Protection Act 1986 to impose over 20 criminal liabilities for minor lapses.

Why Decriminalisation Matters?

• Inequality: Unenforced laws disproportionately harm the poor and unconnected, while the powerful evade consequences.
• Informality: Excessive regulation leads to disregard for rule of law. Only 10 lakh out of 7 crore enterprises contribute to social security.
• Corruption: It creates scope for rent-seeking and discretion in enforcement.
• Judicial burden: It contributes to India’s 5 crore pending cases, undermining access to justice.

Jan Vishwas Siddhant - 3-Phase Reform Strategy:

• Principle formulation: Focus on nature of offence (procedural vs serious harm), intent (malicious vs inadvertent), proportionality of punishment, and availability of civil penalties.
• Inventory creation: Identification of all criminal provisions across laws.
• Application of principles: Systematic removal or conversion to civil penalties.

Constitutional and Philosophical Dimensions:

• The distinction between “procedure established by law” and “due process of law”, influenced by Felix Frankfurter and Benegal Narsing Rau, enabled expansion of state power.
• Jan Vishwas represents a shift from niti (policy/control) to nyaya (justice/fairness), emphasising constitutional morality - liberty should not be curtailed casually.

Challenges and Limitations:

• Partial decriminalisation: Some ministries retain personal criminal liability for offences already covered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
• Bureaucratic resistance: Administrative tendency to expand regulatory control persists.
• Enforcement gaps: Laws often remain symbolic, neither enforced nor repealed.
• Lack of awareness: Businesses and citizens may not fully benefit without legal literacy and clarity.

Way Forward - Next Phase of Reforms:

• Digitisation: Reduce human discretion and improve transparency.
• Deregulation: Rationalise compliance burden further.
• Single source of truth: Unified, accessible database of all laws and rules.
• State-level replication: Adoption by State governments to ensure nationwide impact.
• Principles-based governance: Institutionalising proportionality and necessity in law-making.

Conclusion:

• The Jan Vishwas initiative marks a paradigm shift in governance—from a coercive, compliance-heavy state to one rooted in trust, proportionality, and justice.
• By pruning excessive criminalisation, it not only reduces judicial burden and corruption but also strengthens economic formalisation and citizen-state trust.
• However, its success hinges on sustained political will, administrative reform, and replication across states.
• Ultimately, prioritising nyaya over niti reflects a mature state that governs not by fear, but by legitimacy.