What Is the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2026?
The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2026 is a decriminalisation statute — Act No. 8 of 2026 — that rewrites the penalty clauses of 80 Central Acts, replacing imprisonment and criminal-court fines with civil monetary penalties, warnings and "improvement notices" for a wide range of regulatory lapses. The Bill (No. 104-F of 2026) received the President's assent on 7 April 2026 and was published in the Gazette of India on 8 April 2026. It is the second such statute: an earlier Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023 covered a smaller set of laws, and the 2026 Act itself amends that 2023 Act to align the two.
For a foreign company operating in India, the Act does not remove compliance obligations — packaging still has to be accurate, cosmetics still have to be licensed, food businesses still have to meet FSSAI standards. What changes is the consequence of getting it wrong: a first slip typically now draws a written warning and a corrective ("improvement") notice rather than a criminal prosecution, while repeat violations attract a monetary penalty, often a steep one, decided by a departmental adjudicating officer instead of a magistrate.
How the Decriminalisation Mechanism Works
The Act operates through a Schedule rather than by amending each law's penalty section from first principles. Section 2 gives effect to "the enactments mentioned in column (4) of the Schedule," each amended "to the extent and in the manner mentioned in column (5)" — so every change traces to a specific numbered Schedule entry (Sl. No. 1 to 80) and a specific existing section of the underlying Act.
Commencement is staggered, not uniform. Section 1(2) provides that the Act comes into force "on such date as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint; and different dates may be appointed for amendments relating to different enactments mentioned in the Schedule." In other words, there is no single Act-wide effective date — each Schedule entry (or group of entries) starts to apply only once the Central Government issues a separate commencement notification naming it. A foreign company should check whether the specific provision it is relying on has actually been notified, not assume the whole Schedule is live from the date of assent.
Two further mechanics matter for compliance planning:
- Automatic escalation (section 3). The fines and penalties fixed in the Schedule are automatically increased by 10% of the prescribed minimum amount every three years from the Act's commencement — unless the underlying enactment already has its own revision mechanism, in which case that mechanism controls instead. The 2026 Act inserts an identical proviso into the 2023 Act (Schedule entry 77), so the same escalation logic now runs across both statutes.
- Savings and difficulty removal (sections 4 and 5). The amendment does not disturb anything already done, any liability already incurred, or any pending proceeding under the old provisions. The Central Government may also issue orders to resolve implementation difficulties, but only within two years of commencement, and any such order must be laid before Parliament.
Three Schedule Entries a Foreign Company Should Know
Legal Metrology Act, 2009 — Packaged Goods and E-Commerce (Schedule Entry 66)
Schedule entry 66(N)(i) substitutes section 36(1) of the Legal Metrology Act, 2009 — the core offence for selling a pre-packaged commodity that does not conform to the mandatory declarations (MRP, net quantity, manufacturer details, and so on). The provision now expressly extends to sales made "through digital modes of sale such as e-commerce platforms, online market places or any other digital or electronic means including electronic service providers facilitating such sales," reaching marketplace sellers as well as physical retailers. The substituted penalty structure reads: the offender "shall be warned with an improvement notice and for the second offence shall be liable to penalty which may extend to five lakh rupees and for the subsequent offences the fine shall not be less than twenty-five lakh rupees but may extend to fifty lakh rupees." A first violation is therefore a warning plus a corrective notice, a second violation can cost up to ₹5 lakh, and every violation after that carries a mandatory minimum of ₹25 lakh, rising to ₹50 lakh. Section 36(2), the adjacent offence, is separately revised and stays criminal. Its first-offence fine band widens from ₹10,000–₹50,000 to ₹10,000–₹1 lakh, a second offence draws a fine of up to ₹5 lakh, and a third or subsequent offence draws a fine of up to ₹50 lakh or imprisonment of up to one year or both. The minimum for a first offence is unchanged at ₹10,000; it is the ceiling that moves. The Act also replaces "licence" with "registration certificate" in sections 23 and 47 of the Legal Metrology Act and with "registration" in sections 45 and 46, and rewrites section 48 to set out a formal compounding procedure before the Director or Controller of Legal Metrology.
Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 — Cosmetics and Record-Keeping (Schedule Entry 8)
Schedule entry 8 converts two Chapter IV offences from prosecution to penalty. Section 27A(ii) — manufacturing for sale, selling, stocking, exhibiting or distributing a cosmetic, other than a spurious or adulterated one, in contravention of that Chapter or its rules — previously carried imprisonment up to one year or a fine up to ₹20,000, or both; it is now a penalty "of one lakh rupees or three times the value of the cosmetics confiscated, whichever is higher." Section 28A — failing, without reasonable cause or excuse, to keep the records and furnish the information required by section 18B — moves from imprisonment up to one year or a fine of at least ₹20,000 to a penalty "which shall not be less than three lakh rupees but which may extend to five lakh rupees." Section 27A(i) is untouched: a cosmetic that is spurious under section 17D or adulterated under section 17E still carries imprisonment of up to three years, so decriminalisation stops well short of the serious product offences. The Act inserts a new section 30A creating a departmental adjudicating officer (not below the rank of Deputy or Assistant Drugs Controller) to impose these penalties, with a 30-day appeal window to a more senior officer. For an overseas cosmetics or personal-care brand importing into India, or contracting an Indian manufacturer, these are now penalty exposures to price into compliance budgeting rather than prosecution risks to insure against.
Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 — FSSAI Compliance (Schedule Entry 62)
Schedule entry 62(B) amends the proviso to section 39 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, replacing the phrase "guilty of an offence under this Act and shall be punishable with fine" with "liable to penalty" — reclassifying the underlying contravention from a criminal fine to a civil penalty without altering the quantum set elsewhere in the Act. The entry also replaces references throughout sections 38, 41, 68, 71, 73–75, 78, 79 and 87 to the repealed Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and the Indian Penal Code, 1860 with their successors, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 — a housekeeping change that recurs in many other Schedule entries, since numerous older Acts still cross-refer to the two repealed codes.
Why This Matters for a Foreign Company or Investor
Three practical consequences follow. First, a lapse that used to expose local management to a criminal complaint and a magistrate's court date — for a mislabelled import, an out-of-spec cosmetic batch, or an FSSAI paperwork gap — is increasingly resolved through a departmental adjudicating officer and a monetary penalty instead, which is faster to close but not necessarily cheaper: the Legal Metrology repeat-offence floor of ₹25 lakh, and the Drugs and Cosmetics penalty of up to ₹5 lakh per cosmetics contravention, are materially higher than the fines they replace. Second, because commencement is notified enactment by enactment under section 1(2), a company cannot assume the new (lower first-offence, higher repeat-offence) regime already applies to every Schedule entry — the applicable notification for the specific provision has to be checked before relying on it. Third, the extension of Legal Metrology Act section 36(1) to "digital modes of sale" and "electronic service providers facilitating such sales" pulls e-commerce marketplaces and the sellers who list on them directly into the packaging-declaration regime, which matters for any foreign brand selling through an Indian marketplace rather than its own storefront.
Worked Example
A European skincare brand sells pre-packaged cosmetics in India through both its own website and a third-party e-commerce marketplace. A compliance audit finds that a batch listed on the marketplace omits the mandatory net-quantity declaration required under the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules. Because this is a first violation, the company is warned with an improvement notice rather than prosecuted, and given a defined period to correct the listing. If the same defect recurs on a second batch, the company is now liable to a penalty of up to ₹5 lakh under the amended section 36(1); a third occurrence, and every one after it, carries a fine of at least ₹25 lakh, up to ₹50 lakh — regardless of whether any consumer was actually misled. Separately, if the same brand's cosmetic is manufactured or sold in India in contravention of Chapter IV of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act or its rules, and it is not spurious or adulterated, the exposure under section 27A(ii) is now a penalty of ₹1 lakh or three times the confiscated batch's value, whichever is higher, rather than the pre-2026 one-year imprisonment.
Key Takeaways
- The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2026 (Act No. 8 of 2026, assented 7 April 2026) rewrites penalty clauses in 80 Central Acts listed in its Schedule, generally moving from imprisonment/criminal fines to warnings, improvement notices and civil penalties.
- Commencement is staggered per Schedule entry under section 1(2) — check the specific notification before assuming a provision is already in force.
- Legal Metrology Act, 2009 section 36(1) now covers e-commerce and marketplace sales of pre-packaged goods, with a warning and improvement notice for a first offence, up to ₹5 lakh for a second, and ₹25–50 lakh for every offence after that.
- Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 section 27A(ii) (non-spurious cosmetics contraventions) and section 28A (record-keeping and information failures under section 18B) move to penalties of ₹1 lakh or three times the confiscated value, and ₹3–5 lakh, adjudicated departmentally rather than prosecuted. Spurious and adulterated cosmetics under section 27A(i) remain a criminal offence.
- Section 3 escalates Schedule fines automatically by 10% of the prescribed minimum every three years, unless the underlying Act already sets its own revision mechanism.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2026 apply automatically to all 80 Acts in its Schedule from the date of assent?
No. Section 1(2) lets the Central Government appoint different commencement dates for different Schedule entries by separate notification in the Official Gazette. A company should confirm that the notification covering the specific enactment and provision it relies on has actually been issued, rather than assuming the whole Schedule took effect on 7 April 2026.
Does the Act cover e-commerce sales of packaged goods?
Yes. The substituted section 36(1) of the Legal Metrology Act, 2009 expressly extends the packaged-commodity declaration offence to sales made "through digital modes of sale such as e-commerce platforms, online market places or any other digital or electronic means including electronic service providers facilitating such sales," bringing marketplace listings within scope alongside physical retail.
Does decriminalisation mean the penalties are now smaller?
Not necessarily. A first violation typically now draws a warning and improvement notice instead of prosecution, but the Schedule often raises the monetary penalty for repeat violations well above the fine it replaces — for example, the Legal Metrology Act's third-offence floor for mislabelled packaged goods sold online is ₹25 lakh, rising to ₹50 lakh.
Does the Act affect pending prosecutions under the old provisions?
No. Section 4 is a savings clause: the amendment or repeal of any provision by this Act does not affect anything already done, any right, liability or obligation already incurred, or any proceeding already underway in respect of conduct before the amendment took effect.
How does the Act relate to the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023?
The 2026 Act is a sequel that covers a much larger set of laws. It also directly amends the 2023 Act (Schedule entry 77), inserting a proviso that exempts an enactment from the automatic fine-escalation rule wherever that enactment already sets out its own method for revising fines and penalties.
See also: India's Four Labour Codes, which carried out a similar shift from imprisonment to compoundable penalties for many workplace offences; BIS Certification, the product-standards regime that intersects with Legal Metrology packaging rules; and Environmental Compliance, another area where India has been converting criminal offences into administrative penalties. For food businesses specifically, see FSSAI License.
Not sure whether a Jan Vishwas Schedule entry relevant to your business has been notified yet, or what your exposure looks like under the revised penalty structure? Beacon Filing helps foreign companies track India's regulatory changes and stay compliant.