Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann speaks during the Punjab Legislative Assembly’s budget session, in Chandigarh
| Photo Credit: ANI
The story so far:
On April 13, the Punjab Assembly unanimously passed the ‘Jaagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar (Amendment) Bill, 2026’, aimed at harsher punishment for sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib, including life imprisonment. It proposes to amend the 2008 law enacted under the Shiromani Akali Dal–Bharatiya Janata Party government. A series of so-called sacrilege incidents in recent years prompted successive governments to pursue legislation. In 2016, the SAD-BJP government passed two amendment bills — The Indian Penal Code (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2016, and The Code of Criminal Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2016 — prescribing life imprisonment for desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib, but the Centre returned them, asserting that all religions must be treated equally under India’s secular framework. In 2018, the Congress government again introduced two amendment bills, but they did not receive Presidential assent. Last year, the Aam Aadmi Party government tabled the Punjab Prevention of Offences against Holy Scriptures Bill, which was subsequently sent to a select committee for review.
Published – April 19, 2026 03:30 am IST
