58.
| (1) Any Magistrate or any police officer not below the rank of Inspector, may command any unlawful assembly or any assembly of five of more persons likely to cause a disturbance of the public peace to disperse, and it shall thereupon be the duty of the members of such assembly to disperse accordingly. |
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| (2) If upon being so commanded any such assembly does not disperse or if without being so commanded it conducts itself in such a manner as to show a determination not to disperse, the Magistrate or police officer may proceed to disperse such assembly by force and may require the assistance of any male person (not being a member of the Army, Navy or Air Force, whether of Sri Lanka or of any other country, acting as such) for the purpose of dispersing such assembly and if necessary arresting and confining the persons who form part of it in order to disperse such assembly or that they may be punished according to law. |
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| (3) If any such assembly cannot be otherwise dispersed and if it is necessary for the public security that it should be dispersed, the Government Agent of the district or any Magistrate having jurisdiction who is present or the Inspector-General of Police may cause it to be dispersed by requiring any commissioned or non-commissioned officer in command of any personnel of the Sri Lanka Army, Navy or Air Force, to disperse and confine such persons forming part of it as such officer may be directed or as it may be necessary to arrest and confine in order to disperse the assembly or to have them punished according to law. Every such officer 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. |
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| (4) When the public security is manifestly endangered by any such assembly and when the Government Agent, Magistrate, or the Inspector- General of Police cannot be communicated with, any commissioned officer of the Sri Lanka Army, Navy or Air Force may disperse such assembly by military force and may arrest and confine any persons forming part of it in order to disperse such assembly or that they may be punished according to law; but if while ho is acting under this section it becomes practicable for him to communicate with the Government Agent, Magistrate, or the Inspector-General of Police he shall do so and shall thereafter obey the instructions of such State officer as to whether he shall or shall not continue such action. |
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| (5) No prosecution against any Government Agent, Magistrate, or the Inspector-General of Police or any military officer, police officer or other personnel of the Sri Lanka Army, Navy or Air Force for any act purporting to be done under this section shall be instituted in any criminal court except with the sanction of the Attorney-General; and
| | (a) no Government Agent, Magistrate, or police officer acting under this section in good faith; | | |
| | (b) no officer acting under subsection (4) in good faith; | | |
| | (c) no person doing any act in good faith in compliance with a requisition under subsection (2) or subsection (3); and | | |
| | (d) no inferior officer of the Sri Lanka Army, Navy or Air Force doing any act in obedience to any order which under military law he was bound to obey, | | |
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Sri Lanka Consolidated Acts