AAP MP introduces bill to criminalise ‘sacrilege’ against religious texts

Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha on Friday introduced a private member’s bill in Parliament seeking the maximum punishment for acts of sacrilege against religious scriptures, such as the Guru Granth Sahib, the Bhagavad Gita, the Bible and the Quran.

Private member’s bills are introduced in Parliament independently by MPs.

Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Chadha said that his bill proposes to amend the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita to make sacrilege cases against religious scriptures an offence carrying the highest punishment.

I Introduced a Private Member’s Bill in Parliament to provide for maximum punishment for sacrilege to Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji, Bhagwat Gita, Holy Quran and Holy Bible.

This bill proposes to amend the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 to make such cases of sacrilege a crime… pic.twitter.com/lpwJaI2lQi— Raghav Chadha (@raghav_chadha) December 5, 2025

The Aam Aadmi Party MP claimed that Punjab had witnessed several cases of sacrilege, adding that the state Assembly in 2018 passed a similar bill to provide for life imprisonment for such incidents.

That bill was returned by the president, he said. “Subsequently, the Punjab Assembly has again tabled a new bill giving maximum punishment of 10 years to life for sacrilege cases,” Chadha added.

In July, the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab introduced the 2025 Punjab Prevention of Offences Against Holy Scripture(s) Bill in the state...

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