Employer Compliance: Karnataka to Decriminalise Violations

To foster industrial growth and job creation, the Karnataka Government has proposed to decriminalise compliance violations by employers.

Accordingly, the Karnataka Employer’s Compliance Decriminalisation Bill and the Karnataka Employer’s Compliance Digitisation Bill will soon be tabled. These Bills will ensure simplification of rules and conditions of industrialists’ compliance. Further, the compliance of employment conditions will also be digitalised.

This proposal is part of the State Budget for 2025-26, presented on March 7. The Budget highlights the Government’s commitment to promoting job-centric, inclusive development within the industrial and manufacturing sectors. It also draws attention to the Industrial Policy 2025-20, which was unveiled last month. With this Policy, the Government aims to achieve a 12% industrial growth and the creation of 20 lakh jobs by 2030. Key Budget proposals include the launch of the Chief Minister’s Infrastructure Development Program, the establishment of a seed bank for GI-tagged crops, the creation of a Kannada OTT platform, granting industry status to the cinema sector, etc.

The Central Government has also been taking steps towards decriminalisation, having removed over 42,000 compliance requirements and decriminalised more than 3,700 legal provisions since 2014.[1] Further, over 180 legal provisions were decriminalised under the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023. The Jan Vishwas Bill 2.0 is currently in the works to decriminalise more than 100 provisions across various laws. The goal is to make India a seamless, export-friendly economy, allowing businesses to focus on innovation and expansion rather than paperwork and penalties.

The Centre has also been encouraging states to come up with their own Jan Vishwas Bills, citing the example of Madhya Pradesh, which passed a law[2] earlier this year to decriminalise and rationalise offences.[3] In a similar vein, the Kerala Government is currently reviewing the recommendations of an external committee, which suggests the decriminalisation of select provisions to further enhance ease of doing business.[4]

[1] https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2108360

[2] https://prsindia.org/files/bills_acts/acts_states/madhya-pradesh/2025/Act1of2025MP.pdf

[3] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/govt-to-bring-jan-vishwas-bill-2-0-to-decriminalise-over-100-provisions-finance-minister-sitharaman/articleshow/118709773.cms?from=mdr

[4] https://spb.kerala.gov.in/sites/default/files/2025-02/ER_2024EngVol%201.pdf.pdf