Anti-sacrilege bill tabled in Punjab assembly

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.

- Ravinder Vasudeva

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 ₹5 lakh, which may extend up to ₹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 ₹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, defacing, disfiguring, de-colouring, defiling, decomposing, burning, breaking or tearing of any holy scripture, or part thereof, the bill introduced on Monday reads further.