Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973

CHAPTER X

MAINTENANCE OF PUBLIC ORDER AND TRANQUILITY

A.-Unlawful assemblies

Dispersal of assembly by use of civil force.

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

(2) If, upon being so commanded, any such assembly does not disperse, or if, without being so commanded, it conducts itself in such a manner as to show a determination not to disperse, any Executive Magistrate or police officer referred to in sub-section (1), may proceed to disperse such assembly by force, and may require the assistance of any male person, not being an officer or member of the armed forces and acting as such, for the purpose of dispersing such assembly, and, if necessary, arresting and confining the persons who form part of it, in order to disperse such assembly or that they may be punished according to law.

COMMENTS

Compensation in case of death by police firing - In case of death by police firing ordinarily a compensation of rupees twenty thousand is paid but it does not mean that in the case of death the liability of the wrong-doer is absolved when compensation of Rupees twelve thousand is paid. But as a working principle and for convenience and with a view to rehabilitating the dependants of the deceased such compensation is being paid, which is without prejudice to any just claim for compensation that may be advanced by the relations of the victims-Peoples' Union for Democratic Rights v. State of Bihar AIR 1987 SC 355.

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