Unlawful Assemblies

In most cases we talk about dealing with individuals or a group of individuals but now lets see how to deal with a mass. The State has to control and prevent the unlawful activities of both individuals and masses. The preventive action for the mass differs from that for the individuals. The restraint of the mass has to be immediate and action must be swift to break up the mass.

This is the second branch of the preventive provision of the Code. It deals with an assembly which is unlawful or which is likely to cause breach of peace.
The assembly contemplated under here are of two types :
1) an assembly of five or more persons likely to cause a disturbance of the public peace.
2) Any disturbance of the public peace.

In either cases , before a group of persons may be considered unlawful , it must in numbers , consist of five persons. An assembly is prevented from acting unlawfully by being made to disperse.

According to S.129 (1)
“Any Executive Magistrate in charge of a police station or in the absence of such officer any police officer not below the rank of sub-inspector may command any unlawful assembly or any assembly of five or more persons likely to cause a disturbance of public peace to disperse and it shall be the duty of the members of such assembly to disperse accordingly”