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Public Disorder - Law Dictionary Search Results

Breach of peace

Breach of peace, is the criminal offence of creating a public disturbance or engaging in disorderly conduct particularly by making an unnecessary or distracting noise, Black Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 183.Breach of peace, takes place when either an assault is committed on an individual or public alarm and excitement is caused. Mere annoyance or insult is not enough; thus at common law a householder could not give a man into custody for violently and persistently ringing his door-bell. It is the particular duty of a Magistrate or Police Officer to preserve the peace unbroken, hence if he has reasonable cause to believe that a breach of the peace is imminent he may be justified in committing an assault or effecting an arrest; R.F.V. Heuston, Salmond on the Law of Torts, 131 (17th Edn., 1977).Means a disturbance of public peace order, Webster's Dictionary of Law, Indian Edn. (2005), p. 59.Breach of peace, offences against the public, which are either actual violations of the peace, or c...

Public meeting

Public meeting, a meeting which any person may attend. Any number of persons may meet in any place for any lawful purpose with the consent of the owner of that place; but without such consent, and in any case in the public streets, which are lawfully used for the purpose of passing and repassing only (see the ruling of Charles, J., in the Trafalgar Square case in 1887, and Ex parte Lewis, (1888) 21 QBD 191), there is no 'right of public meeting' known to English law.Political meetings within a mile of Westminster Hall during the session of Parliament are prohibited by the Seditious Meetings Act, 1817. As a result of disturbances created by persons advocating the extension of the parliamentary franchise to women there was passed the Public Meeting Act, 1908, which by s. 1 provides as follows:-1.-(1) Any person who at a lawful public meeting acts in a disorderly manner for the purpose of preventing the transaction of the business for which the meeting was called together shall be guilty ...

Music and dancing licences

Music and dancing licences.--The grant of these in London and Westminster and within twenty miles thereof, including the administrative county of (English) Middlesex (Music and Dancing Licences (Middlesex) Act, 1894), is regulated by the (Eng-lish) Public Entertainment Act, 1751 (25 Geo. 2, c. 36), which enacted that any house kept for public dancing, music, or other public entertainment of the like kind, without a licence from justices, is to be deemed a disorderly house; see (English) Home Counties (Music and Dancing) Licensing Act, 1926 (16 & 17Geo. 5, c. 31); and by s. 3 of the Local Government Act, 1888, which transferred the licensing powers from justices to the London County Council. For Sunday entertainments, see (English) Sunday Entertainments Act, 1932 (22 & 23 Geo. 5, c. 51).Various local Act in large towns (see Geary on the Law of Public Entertainments) regulate music-halls, etc., somewhat similarly; and the (English) Local Government Act, 1888, substitutes the county counc...

Drunkenness

Drunkenness, intoxication with strong liquor; habit-ual inebriety. A contract made by a person when so drunk as to be unable to understand what he is doing is voidable if the person with whom the contract was made was aware of the fact, but it is not void, and may be ratified when he becomes sober, Matthews v. Baxter, (1873) LR 8 Ex 132. Mere drunknness was punishable by statutes 4 Jac. 1, c. 5, and 21 Jac. 1, c. 7, ss. 1, 3, by a fine of five shillings and confinement in the stocks in default of distress. Under the Licensing Act, 1872 (35 & 36 Vict. c. 94), which repeals various previous enactments, drunkenness in a public place or licensed house is punishable by fine (s. 12). Disorderly drunkenness is punishable by fine or imprisonment, and refusal by drunken persons to quit licensed premises is punishable by fine. [(English) Licensing Consolidation Act, 1910, s. 80]The 1st s. of the (English) Licensing Act, 1902 (2 Edw. 7, c. 28), enacts that--If a person is found drunk in any highw...

breach of the peace

breach of the peace 1 : a disturbance of public peace or order [insulting language causing a breach of the peace] see also fighting words 2 : the offense of causing a breach of the peace compare disorderly conduct ...

Beggars

Beggars. Begging in a pubic place is an offence of an 'idle and disorderly person' within the meaning of the (English) Vagrancy Act, 1824, s. 3 (5), and endeavouring anywhere to obtain alms by exposure of wounds, an offence of a 'rogue and vagabond' within s. 4 (5) of that Act (see VAGRANT). Procuring a child to beg in a public place is an offence against s. 14 of the (English) Children Act, 1908, and see the (English) Children and Young Persons Act, 1932 (23 & 24 Geo. 5, c. 12), s. 4....

Circumstances

Circumstances, The 'circumstances' contemplated by s. 489(1) (now s. 127 of Cr PC,1973) must include financial circumstances and in that view, the inquiry as to the change in the circumstances must extend to a change in the financial circumstances of the wife, Bhagwan Dutt v. Kamla Devi (1975) 2 SCR 483: (1975) 2 SCC 386: AIR 1975 SC 83 (86).Circumstances would ordinarily mean situations or events extraneous to the activities of a concerned person or a group of persons, such as riots, disorders, tensions, religious, racial, regional or linguistic or other such commotions, which might by their pre-existence accentuate the impact of such activities affecting the security of the country or a part of it or the public order, Sambhu Nath Sarkar v. State of West Bengal, (1973) 1 SCC 856: (1974) 1 SCR 1: AIR 1973 SC 1425 (1439).An accompanying or accessory fact, event or condition, such as a piece of evidence that indicates the probability of an event, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn....

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