CrPC · Chapter X · Maintenance of public order and tranquillity

CrPC section 130 in the BNSS

CrPC 130BNSS 149

CrPC section 130, “Use of armed forces to disperse assembly”, is now BNSS section 149 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, in force from 1 July 2024.

What changed

From CrPC 130 to BNSS 149

Now BNSS section 149. The armed forces may be called to disperse an assembly by the District Magistrate or an Executive Magistrate authorised by him (CrPC: the Executive Magistrate of the highest rank present).

The official text

Old and new, side by side

Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973

Section 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.

Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023

Section 149 Use of armed forces to disperse assembly

(1) If any assembly referred to in sub-section (1) of section 148 cannot otherwise be dispersed, and it is necessary for the public security that it should be dispersed, the District Magistrate or any other Executive Magistrate authorised by him, 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 Executive 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.

The texts are India Code’s. The amendment markers and footnotes of the official print are left out, so the old section reads as it stood when it was repealed; State amendments are not shown. The PDFs linked below carry the full history.

Old law or new?

Which one applies to a case

The BNSS repealed the CrPC from 1 July 2024 (section 531(1)). Any appeal, application, trial, inquiry or investigation pending immediately before that date is disposed of under the CrPC as it then stood, as if the BNSS had not come into force (section 531(2)(a)). Anything not pending on that date follows the BNSS.