Consider this sequence of events, entirely possible under the current laws in India — a pig wanders out of its pen and spoils a neighbour’s kitchen garden. Police are called. The pig’s owner is charged with a criminal offence, produced before a magistrate, and potentially fined ₹10 — a sum last considered adequate as punishment in 1871.. Actions such as smoking in the metro remain illegal, but the category of offence changes under the Jan Vishwas Bill 2026. (PTI Photo). Now picture this, more plausible scenario: we are in Delhi, and a man is urinating himself against a wall, thus technically guilty of a criminal offence punishable under the New Delhi Municipal Council Act.. Now, say, you are in a metro compartment, and a fellow commuter lights a cigarette. That person just committed a criminal offence, with a fine of ₹250 that hasn’t been revised since the 1980s.. Smoking in public is banned in India, with laws also specifically for metro trains. (Unsplash/Representative Image). These are not hypotheticals, but actual laws, and they represent a problem that the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2026, directly seeks to address.. Introduced in Lok Sabha last week by the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the proposed legislation, or bill, proposes to decriminalise at least 717 minor violations across 80 central laws, replacing the risk of arrest, prosecution, and jail with civil penalties, administrative adjudication, and in many cases, a warning first. It is the third edition of such reforms.. The bill will become an Act, or law, only if both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha clear it and the President signs.. Here are some proposed changes, picked for brevity and illustration, that show what the new bill means in practice.. Open defecation and public nuisance in Delhi. Under the NDMC Act’s existing Section 308, “easing oneself” near a public street — statutory euphemism for urinating or defecating in public — is a criminal offence. It sits on a long list of defined nuisances, including indecent exposure and improper disposal of “night soil” or fecal matter. These are all punishable as criminal matters; and ₹50 as fine.. The bill proposes to restructure this framework. Section 369 will be replaced, swapping “punishable” with “liable to penalty” throughout. “Commission of nuisances” under Section 308 now attracts a ₹500 civil penalty.. A new Section 370 further requires that, for a category of violations, a warning notice must be issued first. Section 372, which made certain offences cognizable, meaning police could arrest without a warrant, is omitted entirely in the proposed legislation.. Smoking in the metro. The Calcutta Metro Railway (Operation and Maintenance) Temporary Provisions Act, 1985, carried only Kolkata’s earlier name, but it governs metro railways nationally, says smoking in any compartment, carriage, or underground station is a criminal offence with a maximum fine of ₹250.. The bill replaces the prov