CHAPTER X -
MAINTENANCE OF PUBLIC ORDER AND
TRANQUILLITY
A—Unlawful assemblies
129. Dispersal of assembly by use of civil force
(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 make
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
130. Use of armed forces to disperse assembly
(1)
If any such assembly cannot be otherwise dispersed, and if it is necessary for
the public
security
that it should be dispersed, the Executive Magistrate of the highest rank who
is present
may
cause it to be dispersed by the armed forces
(2)
Such Magistrate may require any officer in command of any group of persons
belonging to
the
armed forces to disperse the assembly with the help of the armed forces under
his command,
and
to arrest and confine such persons forming part of it as the Magistrate may
direct, or as it
may
be necessary to arrest and confine in order to disperse the assembly or to have
them
punished
according to law
(3)
Every such officer of the armed forces shall obey such requisition in such
manner as he
thinks
fit, but in so doing he shall use as little force, and do as little injury to
person and property,
as
may be consistent with dispersing the assembly and arresting and detaining such
persons
132. Protection against prosecution for acts done under preceding
sections
(1)
No prosecution against any person for any act purporting to be done under
section 129,
section
130 or section 131 shall be instituted in any Criminal Court except—
(a)
with the sanction of the Central Government where such person is an officer or
member
of the armed forces;
(b)
with the sanction of the State Government in any other case
(2)
(a) No Executive Magistrate or police officer acting under any of the said
sections in good
faith;
(b)
no person doing any act in good faith in compliance with a requisition under
section
129
or section 130;
(c)
no officer of the armed forces acting under section 131 in good faith;
(d)
no member of the armed forces doing any act in obedience to any order which he
was
bound
to obey, shall be deemed to have thereby, committed an offence
(3)
In this section and in the preceding sections of this Chapter,—
(a)
the expression "armed forces" means the military, naval and air forces,
operating
as land forces and includes any other Armed Forces of the Union so operating;
(b)
"officer" in relation to the armed forces, means a person
commissioned, gazetted or in
pay
as an officer of the armed forces and includes a junior commissioned officer, a
warrant
officer, a petty officer, a non-commissioned officer and a non-gazetted
officer;
(c)
"member" in relation to the armed forces, means a person in the
armed forces other
than
an officer
