Decriminalisation as a Control Technique

In one line

On 1 April 2024 the principal environmental statutes stopped punishing most contraventions with imprisonment and started punishing them with money, and a second Jan Vishwas Act cut three more sentences on 15 May 2026.

What decriminalisation means

Not the removal of a prohibition. The conduct remains unlawful. What changes is the consequence.

The three moves.

One, replace imprisonment with a monetary penalty. The same act is still forbidden; the sanction is a sum of money.

Two, move the decision from a criminal court to an administrative officer. An adjudicating officer determines the penalty after an inquiry, with an appeal to a tribunal.

Three, keep the criminal law in reserve. Non-payment of the penalty within a stated period remains an offence, so the criminal court reappears only against a person who will not pay.

What the Jan Vishwas Act 2023 did

The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act 2023, Act 18 of 2023, amended forty-two enactments through a single Schedule. Four of them are on this syllabus.

The Environment (Protection) Act 1986, entry 24. Sections 15 to 17 were replaced. Section 15 now provides a penalty of not less than ten thousand and up to fifteen lakh rupees, with additional penalties for continuing contraventions; section 15C creates the adjudicating officer; section 15D an appeal; section 15E credits the penalty to the Environmental Protection Fund; and section 15F makes failure to pay within ninety days an offence. Section 16, formerly offences by companies, is now the Environmental Protection Fund in a new Chapter IIIA; section 17, formerly offences by Government departments, is gone, its place taken by the penalty on a Head of Department in section 15B; and section 24 lost its sub-section (2).

The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1981, entry 21. Section 21(1) was substituted, with a new proviso empowering the Central Government, in consultation with the Central Pollution Control Board, to exempt certain categories of industrial plants from the requirement of previous consent. The penalty sections were replaced with monetary penalties, including a new section 38A for contravention by a Government Department, under which the Head of the Department is liable to a penalty equal to one month of his salary, and a residuary penalty of not less than ten thousand rupees, with a new section 39A creating an adjudicating officer.

The Public Liability Insurance Act 1991, entry 28. Sections 14 and 15 substituted with monetary penalties, section 15A creating the adjudicating officer, section 15B the appeal to the National Green Tribunal on a ten per cent deposit, section 16 omitted, section 17A crediting penalties to the Environmental Relief Fund, section 17B making non-payment within ninety days an offence, and the Schedule omitted.