Explainer: About anti-sacrilege Bill, its provisions
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann today introduced the Punjab Prevention of Offences against Holy Scripture(s) Bill, 2025, in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, exactly a decade after the incidents of sacrilege at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala and Bargari in Faridkot district. The new legislation is the third since the 2015 incidents of sacrilege and police firing on protesters at Behbal Kalan.
Why the new Bill
In 2018, the Vidhan Sabha had passed the Indian Penal Code (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2018, under which Section 295 AA was inserted, providing imprisonment for life for those who commit sacrilege, injury or damage to Guru Granth Sahib, Bhagvad Gita, Quran and Bible with an intention to hurt religious feelings.
Imprisonment for injuring or defiling a place of worship was increased from two years to 10 years. This Bill was then referred to the Centre.
Since the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita has now replaced the IPC, the Bill was sent back to the state government so it could be redrafted. After the 2018 Bill was returned, some social activists had started protesting, demanding a law giving harsher punishment.
Earlier draft laws
During the SAD-BJP’s tenure, while the government struggled to recover from the political turmoil in wake of the 2015 sacrilege incidents, the Vidhan Sabha passed the Indian Penal Code (Punjab Amendment) Bill and Code of Criminal Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill. These were related to sacrilege of only Guru Granth Sahib. These were returned with an objection that it should include punishment for sacrilege against all religions.
Incidents after 2015
According to the state Intelligence Department, over 100 incidents of sacrilege have been reported in the past five years alone.
Earlier, in 2016, desecration of the Quran was reported in Malerkotla and later in Sangrur; torn pages of Guru Granth Sahib were found in a park in Amritsar in 2018, leading to protests; and a gurdwara was vandalised in Tarn Taran and Guru Granth Sahib was desecrated in 2018.
In 2021, a GREF personnel was murdered by the chief of a gurdwara management committee in Gurdaspur on charges of committing sacrilege. In October the same year, a man was killed at Singhu border by Nihangs for desecrating religious texts, and in December, an unidentified man was lynched at Golden Temple after he stepped inside the sanctum sanctorum.
A man was killed in a Kapurthala gurdwara, again in 2021, for disrespecting Nishan Sahib.
After AAP assumed the reins, incidents of sacrilege were reported in Morinda (April 2023) and in Golewala, Faridkot. Shooting incidents were reported at Gurdwara Dukhniwaran Sahib in Patiala (May 2023); a man was killed at Gurdwara Chaura Khooh, Phagwara, on suspicion of sacrilege (2024); a man was lynched at a gurdwara in Bandala village in Ferozepur (May 2024) for allegedly desecrating the Guru Granth Sahib; and a man was booked for sacrilege in Ferozepur after allegedly throwing Sikh religious texts on the road following his conversion to Christianity (December 2024).
Punjab