BNS Section 190: Every Member Of Unlawful Assembly Guilty Of Offence Committed In Prosecution Of Common Object

Definition of BNS Section 190

Section 190 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 states:
“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.”

Explanation and Illustration of BNS Section 190

Section 190 deals with offences committed by members of an unlawful assembly. While unlawful assembly itself is an unlawful offence, this section talks about offences other than unlawful assembly committed by members of an unlawful assembly at the time of the gathering. Let us breakdown the definition and look at the keywords:

Offence: This refers to any act that has been deemed as unlawful or criminal under the provisions of the BNS.

Members of an unlawful assembly - This refers to any assembly that falls under the definition of an ‘unlawful assembly’ as defined by the provisions of section 189.

In prosecution of the common object - This clarifies that the offence must be committed in the course of performing the actions for which the unlawful assembly had gathered in the first place. For instance, if the members have gathered to protest something, then the offence should occur during the course of the protest. Offences committed before the gathering or after the dispersal of the unlawful assembly do not fall under the ambit of this section and will be prosecuted as a separate offence under the respective section that provides for such offence.

Members of that assembly knew to be likely to be committed - The section further expands the scope of the offence. It clarifies that it is not just the members who have committed the offence that are guilty under this section. The ones who were aware that the actions of the assembly were likely to lead the commitment of an offence will also be considered guilty in equal measure. This means that the person who knew that an offence would be committed but did not say anything and continued to participate in the unlawful assembly, nevertheless, would also be considered as guilty as the person who actually commits the offence.

Every person who is a member of the unlawful assembly at the time the offence is committed will be treated as an equal offender in the offence.

The tricky part here is keeping in mind that unlawful assembly itself is an offence under section 189. So “offence committed by a member of an unlawful assembly” implies that this section deals with any offence committed by a member of an unlawful assembly over and above to being a member of an unlawful assembly. This means that:

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