The story so far: On April 13, the Punjab Assembly unanimously passed the ‘Jagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar (Amendment) Bill, 2026’, which aims to provide for stringent punishment, including life imprisonment, for sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib. In this, there is a proposal to amend the 2008 law made under the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party government. A series of so-called sacrilege incidents in recent years prompted successive governments to enact 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 – which provided for life imprisonment for insulting the Guru Granth Sahib, but the Center returned them, saying all religions should be treated equally under the secular framework of India. In 2018, the Congress government again introduced two amendment bills, but they did not receive the President’s assent. Last year, the Aam Aadmi Party government had introduced the Punjab Prevention of Offenses Against Holy Scriptures Bill, which was later referred to a select committee for review.