India decriminalises minor drug, cosmetic and food-safety offences under the Jan Vishwas Act

The government has operationalised Jan Vishwas Act, 2026 reforms in the health sector — converting a clutch of minor, technical violations under the Drugs & Cosmetics and Food Safety laws into administrative penalties, while keeping criminal sanctions for offences that endanger public health.

What happened

• The Government of India operationalised key reforms under the Jan Vishwas Act, 2026 relating to the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
• The amendments decriminalise certain minor and technical violations and replace criminal proceedings with administrative penalties — aimed at trust-based governance, lower compliance burden and proportionate enforcement, without diluting public-health safeguards.
• Under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, Section 29 (penalty up to ₹1 lakh for using a Government Analyst's report in advertising) has been omitted; low-risk cosmetic violations (minor quality/labelling defects) and procedural breaches under Section 28A (records, information) now attract administrative penalties.
• Provisions for Adjudicating Authorities and an Appeal Mechanism have been introduced to enable timely, transparent disposal of such cases.
• Under the Food Safety and Standards Act, the term of imprisonment for interfering with seized items is reduced from six months to three months, the offence of obstructing or resisting a Food Safety Officer has been omitted, and false complaints against Food Safety Officers attract administrative penalty — while spurious/adulterated products continue to face strict penal provisions.

For Prelims

• Jan Vishwas Acts: The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023 was the first — it decriminalised 183 provisions across 42 Central Acts to ease the regulatory burden; the Jan Vishwas Act, 2026 ('Jan Vishwas 2.0') extends this trust-based decriminalisation, including to the health sector.
• Decriminalisation logic: Replacing imprisonment/criminal trial for minor, technical, procedural defaults with administrative/monetary penalties — reducing 'fear of jail' for small businesses while reserving criminal law for serious, harm-causing offences.
• Adjudicating Authority: A designated officer empowered to impose administrative penalties (with an appeal mechanism), instead of routing minor breaches through criminal courts — a hallmark of the Jan Vishwas model.
• Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 / Rules, 1945: The framework regulating quality of drugs and cosmetics, administered by the CDSCO (central, under the DCGI) and state drug controllers.
• Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006: Administered by the FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India); Food Safety Officers enforce standards at the ground level.
• Spurious vs minor: The reform keeps strict criminal penalties for spurious/adulterated drugs and cosmetics (direct public-health risk) — only minor/technical breaches are decriminalised.
• Don't confuse: Decriminalisation ≠ deregulation — standards and stringent penalties for unsafe products remain; only the nature of the penalty (administrative vs criminal) changes for minor defaults.

For Mains

Syllabus: GS2.15 · GS2.9 · Linkage L1