The Public Prosecutor vs Chelliah Tevan and Another

Lakshmana Rao, J.—The respondents were convicted by the Sub-Magistrate of Tuticorin for offences punishable under Sections 323, 324

and 114 of the Indian Penal Code and the proceedings were submitted to the Joint Magistrate of Tuticorin u/s 7(1) of the Madras Borstal Schools

Act with the opinion of the Sub-Magistrate that the respondents who are adolescent offenders as defined in Section 2(1) of the Act are proper

persons to be detained in a Borstal School. The Joint Magistrate acquitted the respondents and the question is whether this is permissible.

The proceedings were submitted u/s 7(1) of the Madras Borstal Schools Act which provides that when a Magistrate not empowered to pass

sentence under that Act is of opinion that an adolescent offender is a proper person to be detained in a Borstal School he may without passing

sentence record such opinion and submit his proceedings and forward the adolescetrt offender to the District Magistrate or Sub-Divisional

Magistrate to whom he is subordinate and the Joint Magistrate to w4i0m the proceedings were submitted has to dispose of the case as prescribed

in Section 7(2) of the Madras Borstal Schools Act. That section provides that he may make such further enquiry if any as he may think fit and pass

such sentence or order dealing with the case as he might have passed if the adolescent had been tried by him, and as pointed out in The Public

Prosecutor Vs. Malaipati Gurappa Naidu, , with reference to the analogous provision in Section 380 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, it is not

permissible to the Joint Magistrate to acquit the accused. A conviction has to be recorded before the proceedings are submitted u/s 7(1) of the

Madras Borstal Schools Act as otherwise there would be no ""adolescent offender"" and when the proceedings reach the Joint Magistrate he has to

deal with a person who has been convicted. The powers conferred by Section 7(2) of the Madras Borstal Schools Act are neither appellate nor

revisional, and the order permissible u/s 7(2) is only such as can be passed upon a convicted person. The order of acquittal is therefore set aside

and the case will go back to the Joint Magistrate for disposal according to law.