An Act to amend the Punjab Holy Quran (Printing and Recording) Act, 2011.
[Gazette of Punjab, Extraordinary, 30th June, 2021]
ACT XX OF 2021
No. PAP/Legis-3(69)/2021/2584.–The Punjab Holy Quran (Printing and Recording) (Amendment) Bill 2021, having been passed by the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab on June 29, 2021, and assented to by the Governor of the Punjab on June 30, 2021, is hereby published as an Act of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab.
Whereas it is expedient to amend the Punjab Holy Quran (Printing and Recording) Act, 2011 (XIII of 2011), in the manner hereinafter appearing;
Be it enacted by Provincial Assembly of the Punjab as follows:
1. Short title and commencement.–(1) This Act may be cited as the Punjab Holy Quran (Printing and Recording) (Amendment) Act, 2021.
(2) It shall come into force at once.
2. Substitution of Section 7 of Act XIII of 2011.–In the Punjab Holy Quran (Printing and Recording) Act, 2011 (XIII of 2011), for brevity cited as ‘the Act’, for Section 7, the following shall be substituted:
“7. Translation or interpretation of the Holy Quran contrary to belief of Muslims.–Where, in a copy or record of the Holy Quran, or in any extract thereof published in a text book, a prayer book, a religious treatise or any other book, an Ayah is translated, interpreted or commented upon, disseminated, uploaded, shared, produced, reproduced, converted into portable document through any information system or electronic device into cyberspace by any person contrary to the belief of Muslims, the author, the printer or publisher, or the person who prepared the record, downloader, creator, possessor, modifier, disseminator whatsoever, whether or not registered under this Act, shall, unless he proves that such translation, interpretation, commentary, dissemination, uploading, sharing, production, reproduction or conversion occurred only owing to a printing or mechanical error, be liable to punishment provided for in Section 9.”
3. Amendments in Section 9 of Act XIII of 2011.–In the Act, in Section 9:
(i) in sub-section (1), for the expression, “shall be liable to imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years or with fine of not less than twerity thousand rupees, or with both”, the expression, “shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to seven years but which shall not be less than three years or with fine which shall not be less than one hundred thousand rupees, or with both” shall be substituted;
(ii) after sub-section (1), the following new sub-section (1A) shall be inserted:
“(1A) Whoever contravenes the provisions of Section 7 with the intent to use the same in derogatory manner or for any unlawful purpose, shall be punished with imprisonment for life.”; and
(iii) in sub-section (2), after the expression “sub-section (1)” the expression “or sub-section (1A)” shall be added.
4. Addition of new sections in Act XIII of 2011.–In the Act, after Section 10, the following new sections 10-A and 10-B shall be added:
“10-A. Cognizance of offences.–All offences punishable under this Act shall be cognizable and non-bailable.
10-B. Trial of offences.–The provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898 (V of 1898) and the Qanun-e-Shahadat Order, 1984 (PO No. 10 of 1984) shall mutatis mutandis apply for the purpose of trial of the offences under this Act.”.
