Source: Supreme Court

Why in News?

Recently, the Supreme Court in the matter of Parshuram v. State of MP, held that it is not necessary that every person constituting an unlawful assembly must play an active role in convicting him with the aid of Section 149 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC).

What was the Background of Parshuram v. State of MP Case?

• It is the prosecution case that the appellant Jalim Singh had constructed a shed on the passage of the village which is used by the cattle.
  • Since the said shed was damaged by a buffalo belonging to the complainant party, appellant Jalim Singh had beaten that buffalo with lathi and drove that buffalo away.
  • Thereafter, a violent altercation occurred among a group of armed individuals.
• The Trial Court convicted the appellants and sentenced them to life imprisonment for the offences punishable under Section 302 read with Section 149 of the IPC.
  • Thereafter an appeal was filed before the High Court of Madhya Pradesh which was later dismissed.
  • Thereafter an appeal was filed before the Supreme Court.
• The Supreme Court disposed of the appeal with the following directions.
  • The conviction under Section 302 IPC was altered to Part-II of Section 304 of IPC.
  • The appellants were sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for 7 years.

What were the Court’s Observations?

• A bench of Justices BR Gavai, BV Nagarathna, and Prashant Kumar Mishra observed that for the application Section 149 of the IPC, it is not necessary to demonstrate that a person committed an illegal overt act or was guilty of an illegal omission to be held a member of an unlawful assembly. The punishment prescribed by Section 149 is, in a sense, vicarious, and does not mandate that every member of the unlawful assembly has personally committed the offence.
• The court referred to the case of Masalti v. State of U.P (1964).
  • In this case, the Supreme Court held that it is not necessary that every person constituting an unlawful assembly must play an active role for convicting him with the aid of Section 149 of IPC. What has to be established by the prosecution is that a person has to be a member of an unlawful assembly.

What is Section 149 of IPC?

About:

• This section deals with the offence committed by the members of unlawful assembly.
  • It states that if an offence is committed by any member of an unlawful assembly in prosecution of the common object of that assembly, or such as the members of that assembly knew to be likely to be committed in prosecution of that object, every person who, at the time of the committing of that offence, is a member of the same assembly, is guilty of that offence.
• Section 141 of IPC defines Unlawful Assembly.

Essential Characteristics:

• The following are the characteristics for convicting the person under Section 149 of IPC:
  • Existence of an unlawful assembly.
  • Commission of an offence by any member of the unlawful assembly.
  • The offence committed must be in furtherance of the assembly’s common objective.

Case Laws:

• In Vinnubhai Ranchhodbhai Patel v. Rajivebhai Dudabhai Patel (2018), the Supreme Court held Section 149 of IPC is not a separate offence rather it creates vicarious liability for all the members having a common object in an unlawful assembly to commit a crime.
• In Yunis v. State of M.P (2002), the Supreme Court held that even though there has been no overt act committed by any one of the accused, still that accused would be liable under Section 149 of IPC by virtue of being present at the place of commission of the crime.