● Retained in BNS
Simply being a knowing member of an unlawful assembly -- without personally using force -- carries up to 6 months' imprisonment, or fine, or both, under BNS Section 189(2). The offence and its punishment are unchanged from IPC Sections 142/143; the two are now merged into a single BNS sub-section.
Section 142 IPC defined a person as a member of an unlawful assembly if, being aware of facts that made an assembly unlawful, they intentionally joined it or continued in it. Section 143 then punished that membership with imprisonment of either description up to 6 months, or fine, or both. This is the base membership offence -- distinct from the definition of what makes an assembly unlawful in the first place (Section 141) and from rioting itself, which requires the assembly to actually use force or violence (Sections 146/147).
BNS Section 189(2) fuses the old Section 142 definition of membership and the Section 143 punishment into a single sentence, reproducing both word for word with no substantive change. It sits inside a heavily consolidated BNS 189, whose nine sub-sections gather what used to be five or six separate IPC sections covering the unlawful-assembly cluster (definition, membership, dispersal-order offences, being armed, hiring and harbouring persons for the assembly).
Nothing substantive changed. The IPC's two-section split -- Section 142 defining membership, Section 143 punishing it -- is merged into one BNS sub-section, but the operative wording and the 6-month/fine ceiling carry over unchanged.
Imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 6 months, or fine, or both..
IPC 143 is bailable..
This is a cognizable. offence.
Non-compoundable..
Matters under IPC 143 are tried before the Any Magistrate..
Common defences include lack of awareness that the assembly was unlawful, absence of intentional joining or continuing (e.g. being caught up in a crowd without joining its common object), or having left before any unlawful object formed.
Summaries are for general information and are not legal advice. For the authoritative bare-act text, see the official Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 and Indian Penal Code, 1860 (full amended text, as it stood before repeal) on India Code, or the Ministry of Home Affairs' new criminal laws page. ← All comparisons