Punjab Anti-Sacrilege Law Passed: Life Imprisonment For Beadbi

Arvind Chhabra

Chandigarh, April 13

The Punjab’s Assembly passed the Jaagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar (Amendment) Bill, 2026 at a special session on Monday. Speaking to the media after the bill was passed, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said those who commit sacrilege will regret it for generations, so stringent will be the punishment.

Unlike its two previous attempts, the bill does not require Presidential assent — a deliberate legal design choice that the government believes makes it bulletproof against the route that thwarted the 2016 and 2018 attempts.

Stringent provisions

The amended law prescribes punishment ranging from a minimum of 10 years to life imprisonment for sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib, along with fines of Rs 5 lakh to Rs 25 lakh and confiscation of the accused’s property. Abetment — including by masterminds who use others to commit the act — carries three to five years. For the first time, sacrilege committed through digital platforms is also explicitly covered.

Terming it a historic and uncompromising step towards justice, Anandpur Sahib MLA and Cabinet Minister Harjot Singh Bains laid out the law’s key enforcement features: only DSP-rank officers or above can investigate ‘beadbi’ cases, with strict timelines for investigation and trial. The offence is non-compoundable and cognizable — meaning out-of-court settlements are barred and arrests can be made without a warrant.

Proceedings of the session opened with obituary references, including tributes to legendary singer Asha Bhosle, victims of the Vrindavan boat tragedy, and those who lost their lives in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Members of the Sant Samaj and leaders of various deras were present in the House — an unusual sight that underlined the religious weight the government wanted to attach to the occasion.

Taking aim at previous governments, Bains said: “So-called Panthic governments failed to enact a stringent law to protect the honour of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, with some even guilty of desecration and later confessing at Sri Akal Takht Sahib.”

A decade in the making

This is the third time Punjab has legislated on sacrilege. The first was the SAD-BJP government in 2016, which proposed life imprisonment only for desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib. The Centre returned that bill, citing concerns that it addressed only one religion and violated the secular principle of equal treatment.

The Congress government under Captain Amarinder Singh tried in 2018, expanding the law to cover four scriptures — Guru Granth Sahib, Gita, Quran and Bible. Those bills were passed unanimously but never received Presidential assent — and remain technically pending, more than seven years later.

The AAP government’s workaround: rather than create new legislation touching Central criminal law, it amended the existing Jaagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar Act, 2008 — a state law dealing with the publication and distribution of the Guru Granth Sahib. Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said since it is a state law, it will not require Presidential assent and will come into force immediately. [Here’s the background of a separate law on sacrilege]

Whether that argument holds up in court is a separate question.  

The number everyone is missing

Punjab Police data shows that 597 sacrilege cases have been reported in the state in the 11 years since the 2015 Bargari incident. Of 544 persons arrested, there has been conviction in only 44 cases.

That is a conviction rate of under eight per cent on a decade’s worth of cases. The problem Punjab faces is not the absence of a law — existing provisions under the BNS already cover religious offences. The problem has been investigation, prosecution and judicial follow-through.

A tougher law changes the ceiling on punishment. It does not, by itself, change what happens between arrest and verdict.

Congress: welcome the law, doubt the government

Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring welcomed the amendment but made clear he was separating the legislation from the party that passed it. “Who will not like the culprits of sacrilege to be severely punished?” he said, while adding that “periodical passages of law and amendments do not and will not serve any purpose if the intentions of the governments passing such laws are not sincere. The AAP government also fails on the count of sincerity.”

Warring recalled AAP’s 2022 election promise — that it would punish the guilty within no time. “The situation is back to square one,” he said. “Not that the government had any difficulty in punishing the guilty under the existing laws against sacrilege, only that it was not sincere.”

Gimmick, says oppn

While interacting with the media in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Ashwani Sharma, Working State President, Bharatiya Janata Party Punjab and MLA from Pathankot, said, “Laws function on intent; there must be intent. But the Aam Aadmi Party government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann lacks intent. Before forming the government, Arvind Kejriwal had promised justice within 24 hours in the Bargari sacrilege case and said the culprits would be put behind bars. However, even after four years, no punishment has been delivered, and the government’s action in these cases has remained sluggish.”

Shiromani Akali Dal leader Parambans Singh Romana called the new bill on sacrilege as “just another gimmick of Bhagwant Mann.”