EMPEROR Vs. RAMA SUDAMA MAHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a reference by the District Magistrate of Poona in regard to an order passed by a First Class trate with regard to one Rama Sudatna Mahar of Lonavla, who is found to have committed theft. The learned Magistrate finds that the accused lad is thirteen years old. Instead, therefore, of suffering the rigorous imprisonment for two months which was imposed, the accused was by the convicting Magistrate directed to be detained in a Reformatory School for five years " or until he attains the age of eighteen years." The District Magistrate objects to the alternative period of time expressed in the words "or until he attains the age of eighteen years "; and we think that the decision in Queen Empress v. Ramai (1900) I.L.R. 24 Mad. 13 is good authority for the objection. We must, therefore, delete from the Magistrate s order the words "or until he attains the age of eighteen years," leaving the period of five years as the exact period for which the boy is to be detained in the Reformatory.