We often heard that Section-144 of Indian Penal Code has been imposed on many parts of India in case of public riots. But why the government impose this section and does imply this section violates any part of our fundamental right? But what exactly is this section-144? Section-144 talks about unlawful assembly.
According to this section when any person armed with any deadly weapons and is a part of unlawful assembly and try to disturb the peace of society then that person will be punished with either the description for a term of 2 years or with fine or with both. But what exactly is an unlawful assembly, according to Section-141 of IPC an unlawful assembly is an assembly of five or more persons with the common object of committing a crime.
Essentials of Unlawful Assembly
- There must be an assembly of five persons: In Dharam Pal Singh Vs State of Punjab the Supreme Court of India said that when there are only five members and if one or more than one is acquitted then rest of them cannot be convicted unless the unlawful assembly is proved.
- The assembly must have a common object: In Shiekh Yusuf Vs Emperor the Supreme Court said that “A common object is where a minimum of five members or all the members share one common object.
- The object must commit one of the five illegal objectives specified in the section:
- To overawe Government by force
- To stop/resist the execution of law or legal process
- To commit an offence
- Forcible possession of any property
- To compel someone to do illegal acts.
Now the question arises imposing Section-144 violates any part of our fundamental rights or not?
Because Article-19(1) (B) of the Indian Constitution gives every citizen of India to Right to Assemble peacefully without arms. Thus Indian citizens have a right to gather together on their own will. But this right also is subject to reasonable restrictions in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India given under clause 3 of the Article-19. Along with this Section-129 and Section-130 of Crpc also talk about the dispersal of assemblies. Section-129 says any unlawful assembly may likely to cause a breach of public peace may be dispersed by the command of an executive magistrate or officer in charge of a police station or any police officer not below the rank of sub-inspector by civil force. Whereas section-130 says any unlawful gathering that is not able to get dispersed by any other way than by the order of executive magistrate of the highest order can order to get the public dispersed by armed force.
Now once the gathering is there and there is a chance gathering is going to disturb the public peace then section-144 of code of criminal procedure comes in the picture. Section-144 basically gives power to District Magistrate, Sub-divisional magistrate or executive magistrate empowered by the state government to take actions when he has reason to believe that with the public gathering there are changes to apprehended danger and do anything in order to maintain the peace. Section-144 is used to prevent any apprehended danger in advance or in case of emergency. So that preservation of peace is maintained in the society is the main function of the state government. That’s why the state government provides executive magistrate with special powers in order to maintain peace in the times of emergency according to section-144 of Code of Criminal Procedure. The main objectives of Section-144 are that:
- Obstruction, an annoyance to any person legal fully employed.
- A danger to human life, safety and health
Prohibition of the right to assemble is not absolute:
In Dr. Anindya Gopal Mitra Vs State, the Supreme Court said that it is under section-144 the power to suspend any occasion and prohibit it is not absolute right. In this case the police commissioner suspended the political meeting of BJP, but this order was quashed by the court and the court said that it is not always necessary to completely suspend the assembly unless it is disturbing the peace of the society sometimes some restrictions can also be put on the assembly.
It is not always necessary to apply section-144 in some cases of public nuisance section-133 of Crpc can also be applied in which magistrate takes the actions on the bases of the report submitted to him by the police officer while in the caes of utter emergency section-144 comes into action.
Punishment for being the part of unlawful assembly:
- Under Section-143 of I.P.C whoever being a part of unlawful assembly shall be punished with the imprisonment which may extend to six months or fine or both.
- Under Section-144 of I.P.C, whosoever joins the unlawful assembly with deadly weapon which is likely to cause to death shall be punished with the imprisonment of two years or fine or both.
- Under Section-145 of I.P.C. whoever joins or continues to be a part of unlawful assembly knowing that it is has been commanded to disperse shall be punished with the imprisonment of two years or fine or both.
- Under Section-149 of I.P.C. whoever is the part of any assembly and knows that the assembly is likely to commit an offence, then every member shall be guilty for the offence and will the according to the offence.
This blog is written by Pragya Sharma, Amity University.
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