Section 142 of the Indian Penal Code, is of Chapter VIII, which are about of offences against the public tranquillity.
Section – 142 provides that whoever, being aware of facts which render any assembly an unlawful assembly, intentionally joins that assembly, or continues in it, is said to be a member of an unlawful assembly.
In other words, an assembly of five or more persons actuated by, and entertaining one or more of the common objects specified by the five clauses of Section – 141 of the IPC, is an unlawful assembly. The crucial question to determine in such a case is whether the assembly consisted of five or more persons and whether the said persons entertained one or more of the common objects as specified by Section 141 of the IPC. While determining this question, it become relevant to consider whether the assembly consisted of some persons who were merely passive witnesses and had joined the assembly as a matter of idle curiosity without intending to entertain the common object of the assembly.
In Baladin v. State of Uttar Pradesh, the Honourable Supreme Court, well settled that mere presence in an assembly does not make a person, who is present, a member of an unlawful assembly unless it is shown that he had done something or omitted to do something which would make him a member of an unlawful assembly, or unless the case falls under Section 142 of the I.P.C.
The fact which were found in that case is that the members of the family of appellant and other residents of the village had assembled together; some of them shared the common object of the unlawful assembly , while others were merely passive witnesses. Dealing with such an assembly, this Court observed that the presence of a person in an assembly of that kind would not necessarily show that he was a member of an unlawful assembly. What has to be proved against a person who is alleged to be member of an unlawful assembly is that he was one of the person constituting the assembly, and he entertained along with the other members of the assembly the common object as defined by Section 141 of The Indian Penal Code (IPC).