Published on : 07 Oct 2025, 2:10 pm 4 min read

The Supreme Court on Tuesday laid down a seven-factor test to decide when a person’s presence at the scene of a crime amounts to participation in an unlawful assembly under Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code. [Zainul vs State of Bihar]

The Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan set out a detailed framework to determine when an accused can be said to share the common object of an unlawful assembly. The Bench held that the prosecution must establish participation through direct or circumstantial evidence and then apply specific criteria.

“ The prosecution has to establish, through reasonably direct or indirect circumstances, that the accused persons shared a common object of the unlawful assembly. The test to determine whether

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