Chandigarh, April 18 -- The Punjab government has sent the Jaagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar (Amendment) Bill-2026 to governor Gulab Chand Kataria for assent. Chief minister Bhagwant Mann shared this information in a post on X on Friday morning, a day after Kataria said he had not yet received the Bill. "The Act (read Bill) passed in the legislative assembly against the disrespect of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji has been sent to the governor sahib for his signatures," Mann posted on X. The Bill, which proposes stricter penalties, including life term and fines up to Rs.25 lakh, for acts of beadbi (sacrilege) against Guru Granth Sahib, was unanimously passed by the assembly during a special session on April 13. Under the constitutional process, the governor may either grant assent, allowing the Bill to become law, return it for reconsideration, or reserve it for the President. On Thursday, during his three-day visit to Pathankot, the governor told the media that no Bill was pending with him to date. "I have not received any Bill, and there is no pendency at my end. As and when I receive the Bill, I will go through it. If I feel any change needs to be brought, I give advice to the government," he said. The anti-sacrilege Bill was tabled by Mann, who holds the home portfolio, to amend the original Jaagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar Act, 2008, to provide a stringent legal deterrent against attempts to disturb communal harmony through organised acts of desecration. The Bill, passed after three hours of discussion, proposes imprisonment of not less than seven years, extendable up to 20 years, along with a fine ranging from Rs.2 lakh to Rs.10 lakh, for any individual found guilty of sacrilege of a saroop (consecrated copy) of Guru Granth Sahib. Stricter penalties - imprisonment of not less than 10 years, extendable to life, along with and fines up to Rs.25 lakh - have been proposed for an act of sacrilege carried out as part of a criminal conspiracy with the intention of disrupting peace or communal harmony. According to the Bill, any individual who abets the commission of an offence shall be liable to the same punishment as provided for the offence so abetted. The Bill seeks to define sacrilege as "any wilful and deliberate act, committed with the intent of desecration by way of physical damaging, defacing, burning, tearing or theft of the saroop(s) of Jaagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib or part thereof, or by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or through electronic means or otherwise, which is of such a nature as to hurt the religious feelings of persons professing the Sikh faith."...