Unlawful Assembly and Rioting Under the BNS (Sections 189 and 191) (2026)

Explainer · BNS · New Criminal Code

Updated for 2026 · Claw Editorial

Unlawful assembly and rioting are offences under Sections 189 and 191 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS), which replaced Sections 141 to 147 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). An unlawful assembly is five or more persons with a common unlawful object. Rioting is where that assembly, or a member, uses force or violence for the common object. Rioting carries up to two years, or up to five years if armed. Last verified October 2026.

01What Sections 189 and 191 of the BNS cover

These sections deal with group offences against public order. Section 189 covers the unlawful assembly, and Section 191 covers rioting, which is the unlawful assembly turned violent.

Unlawful assembly (Section 189)

An assembly of five or more persons is an unlawful assembly if the common object of the persons in it is one of the following:

• to overawe by criminal force the Government, Parliament, a State legislature or a public servant in the exercise of lawful power;
• to resist the execution of any law or legal process;
• to commit any mischief, criminal trespass, or other offence;
• to take or obtain possession of property by criminal force, or to deprive a person of a right or enforce a claimed right by criminal force; or
• to compel a person to do what he is not bound to do, or to omit what he is entitled to do, by criminal force.

Section 189 also punishes being a member of such an assembly, being a member while armed with a deadly weapon, joining or continuing in it after it has been commanded to disperse, and hiring or joining it.

Rioting (Section 191)

When force or violence is used by an unlawful assembly, or by any member of it, in prosecution of the common object, every member of that assembly is guilty of rioting. The violence by one member, for the common object, fixes guilt on all the members.

02Old to new: IPC Sections 141 to 147 to BNS Sections 189 and 191

Under the Indian Penal Code these offences were spread over Sections 141 to 148. The BNS has gathered the main ones into Sections 189 and 191.

A matter for an act on or after 1 July 2024 uses the BNS numbers. An older matter stays under the IPC. See the IPC to BNS section mapping for the full table.

03Punishment and classification

The punishment rises with the conduct and whether a weapon is involved.

These public order offences are generally cognizable, so the police can act without a prior court order, and generally bailable, with the trial usually before a Magistrate. The exact status can differ by sub-clause.

Five or more people with a shared unlawful object make an unlawful assembly. The moment force or violence is used for that object, it becomes a riot, and every member can be held guilty.

04What changed from the old law

The core ideas are unchanged. The number five, the list of common objects, the rule that a member need not personally use force to be guilty of rioting, and the extra punishment for carrying a deadly weapon, all carry over from Sections 141 to 148 of the IPC.

The main change is consolidation and renumbering. Several old sections now sit inside two sections, 189 and 191, and the numbers are new. For an act on or after 1 July 2024, cite the BNS. The settled case law under the old sections, on common object and on constructive liability, remains a guide because the language is carried forward.

Related offences include promoting enmity between groups under BNS Section 196 and extortion under BNS Section 308. For the wider reform, see the new criminal laws of 2024.

05Where Claw fits

Claw is an all-in-one legaltech platform for Indian advocates, law firms, and corporate legal teams, combining AI-based case search, an AI legal assistant (Legal GPT), case management, and compliance automation across all Indian courts and tribunals.

Public order cases often involve many accused, multiple first information reports and matters running in several courts at once. An advocate needs to see how Sections 189 and 191, and the old Sections 141 to 148, have been applied, and to keep track of each linked matter. Claw lets you search and track cases, orders and judgments by section, party or advocate across 9,102 courts, benches and forums, with 30 crore and more judgments and results in under 5 seconds. You can look up how courts have treated unlawful assembly and rioting, and follow a live matter with automatic updates, cause lists and alerts.

Claw does not file your case or give legal advice, and Claw does not use customer case documents to train AI models. Create a FREE Claw account to search and track cases under this section by party or advocate name.

This explainer is general information, not legal advice.

06Sources and further reading

• India Code (official text of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023): indiacode.nic.in
• Ministry of Home Affairs (new criminal laws): mha.gov.in
• Section 189 BNS, bare text reference: devgan.in
• Claw: clawlaw.in

Always read the section as it stands on the day you act, and take advice from counsel. The law changes through amendments and judgments.

07Frequently asked questions