The story to date:

On April 13, the Punjab Meeting unanimously handed the ‘Jaagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar (Modification) Invoice, 2026’, geared toward harsher punishment for sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib, together with life imprisonment. It proposes to amend the 2008 regulation enacted underneath the Shiromani Akali Dal–Bharatiya Janata Occasion authorities. A sequence of so-called sacrilege incidents in recent times prompted successive governments to pursue laws. In 2016, the SAD-BJP authorities handed two modification payments — The Indian Penal Code (Punjab Modification) Invoice, 2016, and The Code of Prison Process (Punjab Modification) Invoice, 2016 — prescribing life imprisonment for desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib, however the Centre returned them, asserting that every one religions have to be handled equally underneath India’s secular framework. In 2018, the Congress authorities once more launched two modification payments, however they didn’t obtain Presidential assent. Final 12 months, the Aam Aadmi Occasion authorities tabled the Punjab Prevention of Offences towards Holy Scriptures Invoice, which was subsequently despatched to a choose committee for overview.