(1) When a child is arrested or detained on a charge for any offence, whether bailable or not, or appears or is brought before a Court, such child may be released on bail with or without sureties, but he shall not be so released if there appear reasonable grounds for believing that the release is likely to bring him under the influence of any criminal or expose him to moral danger or defeat the ends of justice.
(2) When such a child having been arrested is not released on bail under sub-section (1) by the officer-in-charge of the police-station, such officer shall cause him to be kept in a reception home in the prescribed manner, but not in the police-station or jail, until he can be brought before a Court
Provided that such child shall be produced before the nearest court having jurisdiction within a period of twentyfour hours of such arrest excluding the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the Court.
(3) When such child is not released on bail under subsection (1) by the Court, it shall, instead of committing him to prison, •order him to be sent to a reception home during the pendency of the inquiry into the charge against him.
• 8 The West Bengal Children Act, 1959.
[West Ben. Act (Cha'pter 111.—Juvenile delinquents.—Sections 23-25.)
23. When a child is arrested, the officer-in-charge of the police-station to. which he is brought, shall forthwith inform the parent or guardian, if he can be found, of such arrest and shall cause him to be summoned to the Court before which the child will appear:
Provided that nothing in this section shall be deemed to require the attendance of the mother or the female guardian of the child if, according to the local manners and customs, she does not appear in public, but any such person may appear before the Court by a duly authorised • pleader or agent.
24. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any law for the time being in force,—
(1) no juvenile delinquent shall be sentenced to death;
(2) no juvenile delinquent shall be sentenced to imprisonment or committed to prison in default of payment of fine or in default of furnishing security :
Provided that where the Court is satisfied that the offence committed by the juvenile delinquent is of so serious a nature or that he is so unruly or of so depraved a character that he is not a fit person to be sent to a reformatory or borstal school, the Court may sentence him to imprisonment for a period not exceeding the maximum period of imprisonment to which he could have been sentenced for the offence committed, and the Court shall report the case to the State Government and direct the juvenile delinquent to be detained in such custody as it may think fit ; and
(3) on receipt of a report from the Court under clause
(2), the State Government may make such arrangement in respect of such juvenile delinquent as it deems proper and may at any time order him to be released from custody on such conditions, if any, as the State Government may think fit to impose.
information to, and • attendance in Court, of parent or guardian.
Sentence that may not be passed against juvenile (Jelinquents.
Inquiry by 25. Where a child having been charged with an offence •Court regarding appears or is produced before a Court, the Court shall hold juvenile de- the inquiry in accordance with the provisions in the Code of Unguents. Criminal Procedure, 1898, for the trial of a summons case. 1898. of Act V The West Bengal Children Act, 1959.
9 XXX of 19591 ( Chapter 111.—Juvenile delinquents.—Section 26.)