No licence, no jail? What the new law really means

You no longer have to worry about being put in jail or slapped with criminal charges for loitering in a cantonment, hawking wares without a licence, or committing over a thousand other acts that could once have landed you in serious trouble.
That’s thanks to the Jan Vishwas Act, 2026, passed by Lok Sabha on April 1, which marks the second chapter in an effort that began in 2023 with the first Jan Vishwas Act. That law decriminalised 183 provisions across 42 laws and had a relatively narrow focus on improving ease of doing business. The latest act goes much beyond.