Punjab Anti-Sacrilege Law 2026: Life Term Approved — History, Politics And The Legal Workaround Explained

Punjab’s Cabinet has cleared a bill proposing life imprisonment for beadbi. It’s the third attempt in a decade. North Desk explains the history, the two Central rejections, and why AAP believes this time will be different.

Arvind Chhabra

Chandigarh, April 12

Ten years after the Bargari sacrilege shook Punjab to its foundations, the state is attempting once again to put a life sentence on the books for the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib. The Punjab Cabinet, led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, cleared the Jaagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which prescribes punishment ranging from a minimum of 10 years in prison to life imprisonment for any act of sacrilege. The Bill also imposes a fine of Rs 5 lakh to Rs 25 lakh on those found guilty. It goes before a special session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha on April 13.

But this is not a new story. It is, in fact, the third chapter of a decade-long legislative saga — one that has seen two governments pass similar bills, the Centre reject both, and the issue remain unresolved while the 2015 sacrilege cases themselves drag through the courts.

Where It All Began: Bargari, 2015

The political urgency around sacrilege law traces to a single incident. On June 1, 2015, pages of a Bir — a copy of the Guru Granth Sahib — that went missing from Burj Jawahar Singhwala village were later found scattered on the streets of Bargari village in Faridkot district. The incident triggered mass protests across Punjab. When police opened fire on demonstrators at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura, two people were killed. The Akali-BJP government of the day — already in its final years — never recovered politically from the episode.

The demand for stringent legal punishment for sacrilege became, from that moment, a defining issue for every party seeking Sikh votes in Punjab.

Attempt 1: The Akali-BJP Bill, 2016

In March 2016, the SAD-BJP coalition government introduced amendments to the IPC and CrPC proposing life imprisonment for desecration — but only for incidents involving the Guru Granth Sahib. The bill passed in the Assembly. Then it went to the Centre. The Centre returned it, citing violation of the secular ethos of the Constitution and the need to treat all religions equally. The bill, which had been framed to address a specifically Sikh grievance, was held to discriminate on religious grounds. It was effectively dead on arrival.

Attempt 2: The Congress Bills, 2018

The Congress government under Captain Amarinder Singh tried to learn from the Akali failure. The Congress government’s IPC (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018, and CrPC (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018, extended the life imprisonment penalty to the sacrilege of four major scriptures: Guru Granth Sahib, Srimad Bhagavad Gita, the Holy Quran, and the Holy Bible. By including all four faiths, Congress sought to meet the Centre’s objection on the equal-treatment principle.

The bills were passed by the Punjab Assembly on August 28, 2018, but have not received the assent of the President — now more than seven years later. The reason this time was procedural and constitutional: when the IPC was replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita in 2023, the bills — drafted under the old IPC framework — were rendered technically obsolete and became stranded.

The AAP Dilemma: Delivery vs Promise

When AAP swept to power in 2022, it inherited both the unresolved sacrilege cases and the stalled legislation. The party had built much of its campaign in Punjab on the promise of justice for the 2015 incidents — Arvind Kejriwal had famously said the perpetrators would be behind bars within 24 hours of AAP coming to power.

That promise remains unkept. Since nothing substantial has been achieved in bringing the culprits of the sacrilege incidents and the Kotkapura firing case to book, the AAP has taken recourse to bringing amendments to an existing state law.

The AAP first tried the direct legislative route. In July 2025, CM Mann introduced the Punjab Prevention of Offences against Holy Scripture(s) Bill, 2025, in the Assembly — proposing a minimum of 10 years to life imprisonment for desecrating holy scriptures. It was referred to a Select Committee of the Vidhan Sabha following demands from the Opposition. That committee’s report has still not been tabled.

Attempt 3: The 2026 Amendment — And The Workaround

Faced with the Select Committee’s delay and the approach of the 2027 state elections, the Mann government has now taken a different route entirely. Rather than introducing a fresh standalone bill — which would need Presidential assent — it has amended an existing state law, the Jaagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar Act, 2008.

The legal logic is significant. Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said: “Since it is a state law, it will not require Presidential assent and will come into force immediately.”

The 2008 Act — which deals with protocols for the printing, publication and distribution of the Guru Granth Sahib — is a state subject. By inserting life imprisonment provisions into it rather than into a Central law like the IPC or BNS, the government argues it can bypass the Presidential assent requirement that blocked both previous attempts.

The amended bill also includes punishment for abetment — anyone who instigates or conspires to commit sacrilege faces three to five years in prison and a fine of up to Rs 3 lakh. Crucially, the definition of desecration has been widened to include words spoken or written, signs, or visible representation through electronic means — covering online sacrilege for the first time.

Will The Legal Workaround Hold?

Not everyone is convinced the route is watertight. Ashok Aggarwal, who as Advocate General of Punjab in 2016 had framed the original IPC amendment bill, believes the new law could also meet the fate of previous efforts because of the repugnancy clause under Article 254 of the Constitution. “The effect of this new law will have to be seen vis-a-vis the existing provisions for punishment under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and thereafter it will have to be seen if it requires Presidential assent,” he was quoted as saying.

Article 254 of the Constitution states that if a state law is repugnant to a Central law on the same subject in the Concurrent List — which criminal law is — the Central law prevails, and the state law can be rendered void unless it receives Presidential assent. Whether the 2026 amendment falls within this trap is likely to be tested in court.

The Politics Underneath

The state goes to polls early next year and this new law against sacrilege is seen as an attempt to refresh public memory of the 2015 sacrilege incidents during the Akali-BJP rule. This is also seen as the party’s endeavour to seek and consolidate Sikh votes in its favour ahead of the elections.

The opposition has not let this pass without comment. Senior Congress leader and Jalandhar Cantt MLA Pargat Singh accused the Punjab AAP government of attempting to amend the 2008 Act merely to divert public attention from its failure to punish the perpetrators of sacrilege incidents.

The bill has not gone unchallenged within Panthic circles. The SGPC has publicly opposed amending the 2008 Act, arguing it was framed exclusively to govern the printing, publication and distribution of the Guru Granth Sahib — not to address criminal punishment for sacrilege. The Akal Takht’s officiating Jathedar also weighed in, demanding the draft be shared with the SGPC before it is tabled.

BJP leader and Supreme Court advocate HS Phoolka went further, warning that any modification to the 2008 Act could violate the Nehru–Master Tara Singh Pact of 1959, which restricts government interference in Sikh religious affairs.

The SGPC’s objection is not a small one. The body that administers Sikh shrines arguing that the wrong law is being amended — at the very moment the government claims to be protecting Sikh religious sentiment — gives the opposition a line of attack that could be deployed vigorously on Monday.

What Happens On April 13

The bill goes before the special session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha on Monday. If passed — and the AAP has a comfortable majority — it will come into force immediately, bypassing the Presidential assent route that trapped its predecessors.

Whether it survives constitutional scrutiny is another matter. A decade after Bargari, Punjab may finally have a law on its books. Whether that law will hold, and whether it will ever produce a conviction in the very cases that made it necessary, are questions that remain open.