Public Prosecutor vs Rathinam Pillai

Happell, J.—The accused to whom this reference relates was convicted by the Second Class Magistrate of Trichinopoly of an offence u/s 379, Penal Code, and sent to the Sub-divisional Magistrate of Trichinopoly, for action to be taken by him under the Madras Borstal Schools Act. The Sub-divisional Magistrate sentenced him to be detained in the Borstal School for one year and directed that the sentence should be served consecutively with the sentence of two years detention in a senior certified school which the accused was already undergoing. u/s 8, Borstal Schools Act, a sentence of less than two years detention cannot be imposed and the Act makes no provision for sentences to be served consecutively. The reference must therefore be accepted and there will be substituted for the sentence passed by the Sub-divisional Magistrate a sentence of two years detention in a Borstal School. The accused has already more than a year of the sentence which he is undergoing in the senior certified school to serve and consequently the sentence of two years now imposed will mean in effect that he will undergo some months of detention less than if he had had to serve the sentence of one year imposed by the Sub-divisional Magistrate, Trichinopoly, after the expiration of the sentence he is already undergoing in the senior certified school.