The Punjab Assembly on Tuesday referred a bill, which proposes life imprisonment and a fine of up to Rs 10 lakh for acts of sacrilege against religious scriptures, to a select committee of legislators for the consultation with stakeholders, PTI reported.

The 2025 Punjab Prevention of Offences Against Holy Scripture(s) Bill was tabled in the Assembly by the Aam Aadmi Party government on Monday.

The bill proposes strict punishment for desecration of holy scriptures, including the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the Bhagavad Gita, the Bible and the Quran.

It proposes minimum imprisonment of 10 years and a minimum fine of Rs 5 lakh for persons found guilty of sacrilege, the newspaper reported. It also states that an attempt to commit such an offence may lead to a jail term of three years to five years and a fine up to Rs 3 lakh.

The bill noted that offences under the proposed law would be cognisable, non-bailable and non-compoundable, The Indian Express reported. The cases would be tried in a sessions court.

As per the bill, an offence is defined as sacrilege, damage, destruction, defacing, disfiguring, de-colouring, de-filling, decomposing, burning, breaking or tearing of any holy scripture or its part, PTI reported.

On Monday, a government spokesperson told The Indian Express that there had been several incidents involving the sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib and other religious texts.

This deeply hurt public sentiments and caused unrest in society, the spokesperson said, adding that sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita addressed such offences but did not prescribe sufficiently stringent penalties to serve as an effective deterrent.

“Considering the gravity of such offences and the imperative to preserve communal harmony and religious sanctity, the Cabinet found it necessary to introduce state-specific legislation providing enhanced penalties – including life imprisonment – for those convicted of sacrilege against any holy granth,” The Indian Express quoted the spokesperson as saying.

During the discussion on the bill in the Assembly on Tuesday, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said that the proposed legislation would ensure that no heinous crime takes place by making a provision of the sternest punishment against culprits, PTI reported.

The special session of the Assembly had been called after the chief minister met representatives of the Sarb Dharam Beadbi Rokko Kanoon Morcha, an organisation whose activist Gurjeet Singh Khalsa has been protesting atop a 400-foot telecom tower for 275 days demanding the law, The Indian Express reported.