EMPEROR Vs. BLANCHI CONSTANT CRIPPS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the Government of Bombay against the acquittal of two women by the Sessions Judge of Ahmedabad. The offences with which they were charged were under Sections 317 and 109 of the Indian Penal Code.

(2.) The facts, which are undisputed, are that the younger of the two accused persons, a girl of fourteen, became pregnant while still unmarried, and in order to conceal her shame from her parents with the connivance of the elder of the two accused, her sister, she was conveyed to the Civil Hospital of Ahmedabad where she was safely delivered of a child. As soon as she was sufficiently recovered the two sisters agreed that it would be advisable to Dispose of the child secretly. Accordingly, the young mother handed the child to her elder sister who carried it by train to Mahomedabad where she left it in a Second Class compartment. The child was carefully wrapped up and a bottle of milk was left by its side, so that as soon as it was discovered by any one there should be means of feeding it.

(3.) These being the admitted facts, the learned Sessions Judge came to the conclusion that no offence had been committed by either of the accused persons. The mother, in his opinion, was the only one of the two who had the care of the child and she neither exposed nor left it with the intention of wholly abandoning it. Her elder sister, according to the view taken by the learned Sessions Judge-a view which had formerly been expressed in the Madras High Court- was not a person having the care of the child within the meaning of the section, because she was only entrusted with the child for the express purpose of exposing or leaving it. ,