How are you aggrieved? P&H High Court to Anglican Church for challenging Punjab law on Guru Granth Sahib

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday questioned Anglican Church of India for filing a petition to challenge the recent amendments made by Punjab Assembly to the anti-sacrilege law concerning acts against the Guru Granth Sahib

A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor said the law did not concern Christians and questioned the locus standi of the petitioner.

"In what manner are your religious rights infringed? What is that equal protection denied to you? Suppose the State finds that in order to deal with certain particular exigency relating to a particular religion, if it comes out with a legislation, then how are you aggrieved," Justice Mishra asked.

The Court added the petitioner was raising "imaginative grievances". It said the legal amendments were brought in as there were incidents of sacrilege with regard to Guru Granth Sahib.

"There was no such incident reported with regard to Bible. So therefore where there is occasion for you to come forward except that you want some sort of a publicity for yourself," the Bench said.

The counsel representing Anglican Church of India said the legislation has created a penal regime in favour of one one holy scripture which places other unholy scripture at "uneven place".

He said the government itself had earlier admitted that incidents relating to other religions had also take place.

However, the Court questioned how the Christian organisation was affected by a legislation which proposes to protect the faith of the majority of the residents in Punjab. It added the organisation could approach the Court in case there was any violation of rights of Christian community.

Punjab State Assembly passed the Jaagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar (Amendment) Bill, 2026 in April. It received the Governor's assent and became a law. The amendments were made to a law originally passed in 2008.

The Act now provides for a minimum imprisonment of seven years and a maximum of 20 years for any act of sacrilege of the saroops of the Guru Granth Sahib. It also provides for imposition of a fine ranging from ₹2 lakh to ₹10 lakh for desecration.

Significantly, it provides for life imprisonment in case of sacrileges committed with intention to disrupt communal harmony in the State.

Anglican Church of India moved the Court challenging the constitutional validity of the law on the ground that it establishes a "religion-specific and discriminatory penal framework" by conferring exclusive and elevated statutory protection upon saroops of Guru Granth Sahib while denying any similar protection to other holy scriptures.

As per the plea,

"The legislature has selectively chosen to enact a stringent regime for only one scripture, thereby resulting in hostile discrimination, arbitrariness and unequal treatment between religions, in violation of Articles 14, 25 and 26 of the Constitution of India and contrary to the basic structure principles of secularism."

According to the petition, the provisions of the anti-sacrilege law are repugnant to the provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) which already govern the offences relating to religion.

Meanwhile, the Court also heard a plea filed by one Karanpreet Singh who has also challenged the same law.

The Counsel representing the petitioner said the some of the provisions of Jaagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar (Amendment) Act, 2026 amount to interference in the religious affairs by State.

It was also argued that the law was repugnant to provisions of BNS.

The Court said it will examine whether Singh's plea needs to be considered and listed both the petitions for hearing on August 7.

"Let us be convinced that there is something of substance," the Bench said.