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PART A -- GENERAL
1. ***[Omitted]
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[2. Commitment to prisons of children should be avoided.- It is now generally accepted that the commitment of children to prison is against public policy, as it exposes them to the evils resulting from association with hardened criminals. Therefore, in case of children (i.e. persons under fourteen) the principle is that commitment to prison should be avoided as far as possible.
3. Remand to prison pending inquiry or trial not desirable.- Even for the purposes of remand pending enquiry or trial, the committal of children and young persons to prison should be avoided. There should be special place of detention such as remand-homes for them; but till such time as remand-homes are provided, Courts should make suitable arrangements, when practicable for the detention of children.
4. Police not empowered to release children on bail, but it should produce them at once before nearest Magistrate for grant of bail.- While the police have no power of taking bail in non-bailable offences, executive action should be taken by the district Magistrates by having children cases brought up to the nearest Magistrate.]
5. Sentence against juvenile offenders, alternatives. Imprisonment and detention in Reformatory School to be avoided.-- When a Magistrate is called upon to sentence a juvenile offender, he has the following alternatives before him. He may order-
(a) whipping,
(b) fine,
(c) ***[Omitted]
(d) treatment under section 31 of the Reformatory Schools Act,
(e) detention in a Reformatory School,
(f) ***[...] imprisonment.
The subject of detention in a Reformatory School is dealt with separately in part C. Before ordering imprisonment, Magistrates should make free use of the other alternatives and should refrain from sending boys to the Reformatory School in cases where they can be suitably dealt with otherwise.]
6. Cases should be sent to Courts exercising powers of whipping.-- Courts not empowered to pass orders ***[...] under the Whipping Act, should be encouraged to refer cases suitable to the application of these provisions of law to Courts which have been invested with the necessary powers.
7. Boys sentenced to but unfit for whipping to be sent to Reformatory School.-- Boys sentenced to whipping and found unfit for it should be sent to the Reformatory School, if necessary and not to jail .
8. Age of the offender to be noted in the judgment. Sentence of youthful offenders to imprisonment to be reported to District Magistrate. Monthly return of offenders under 24 years of age to be sent. Duty of District Magistrate.-- The failure of Magistrate to impose suitable sentences on youthful offenders is possibly due to inadvertence, the age of the accused not being prominently in the mind of the Magistrate at the time of passing the sentence. In order to minimise and, if possible, to abolish the infliction of sentences, which are likely to have prejudicial effect on the character of a youthful offender, when other suitable methods of punishment are available, ***[...] all Criminal Courts should in future enter the ages of the convicts in the body of their judgments, with a view to being directly seized with the question of age when deciding the sentence to be imposed on a juvenile or adolescent. ***[...] All Magistrates shall report the cases of convictions of youthful offenders under 18 years of age, where a sentence of imprisonment has been awarded, to the *[Sessions Judge or District Magistrate, as the case may be] as soon as judgment is passed. They shall also submit to the Sessions Judge or District Magistrate as the case may be at the end of every month returns of all cases in which persons under the age of 24 years are sentenced to imprisonment. The *[Sessions Judge or District Magistrates as the case may be] will scrutinize these cases and returns, and will take action on the revision side in all suitable cases in general and in particular in all cases in which casual offenders under 24 years of age have been sent to jail for short terms.]
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[9. Short sentence to be avoided.- Free use of the provisions of section 31 of the Reformatory Schools Act, 1897, should be made where these can be applied. Section 31 runs as follows:-
(1) Power to deal in other ways with youthful offenders including girls.- Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act or in any other enactment for the time being in force, any Court may, if it shall think fit, instead of sentencing any youthful offender to imprisonment or directing him to be detained in a Reformatory School, order him to be -
(a) discharged after due admonition, or
(b) delivered to his parent or to his guardian or nearest adult relative, or such parent, guardian or relative executing a bond, with or without sureties, as the Court may require, to be responsible for the good behaviour of the youthful offender for any period not exceeding twelve months.
(2) For the purposes of this section the term 'youthful offender', shall include a girl.
(3) The powers conferred on the Court by this section shall be exercised only by Courts empowered by or under section 8.
(4) When any youthful offender is convicted by a Court not empowered to act under this section and the Court is of opinion that the powers conferred by this section should be exercised in respect of such youthful offender, it may record such opinion and submit the proceedings and forward the youthful offender to the District Magistrate to whom such Court is subordinate.
(5) The District Magistrate to whom the proceedings are so submitted may thereupon make such order or pass such sentences as he might have made or passed if the case had originally been tried by him.
Youthful offender defined - "Youthful offender" in the above section means a person under the age of 15 years at the time of conviction.]
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