The Punjab Borstal Act, 1926

DISCLAIMER: This document is being furnished to you for your information by PRS

relevant state department concerned or refer to the latest government publication or the

persons connected with it shall not be in any way responsible for any loss, damage, or distress to any person on account of any action taken or not taken on the basis of this document.

The Punjab Borstal Act, 1926

Act 11 of 1926

Keyword(s): Borstal Institution, Detained, Inmate, Security of Good Behaviour

1926 : Pb.

(1) This Act may be called the Punjab Borstal Act, 1926. (2) It extends to Haryana. (3) It shall come into force in the principal territories on such date as the State Government may by notification appoint in this behalf and in the transferred territories on the 15th May, 1958.

In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context,- (1) "Borstal Institution" means a place in which offenders may be detained under this Act and given such industrial training and other instruction and subjected to such disciplinary and moral influences as will conduce to their reformation; (2) "detained" means detained in, and "detention" means "detention" in a Borstal Institution; (3) "inmate" means any person ordered to be detained ; (4) "offence" means- (i) an offence punishable with transportation or rigorous imprisonment under the Indian Penal Code other than- (a) an offence punishable with death ; (b) an offence punishable under Chapter V-A or Chapter VI of the said Code ; (ii) an offence punishable with imprisonment under the Public Gambling Act, 1867 ; (iii) an offence punishable with imprisonment under the Opium Act, 1878; (iv) an offence punishable with imprisonment under the Punjab Excise Act, 1914; (5) "officer" means an officer of a Borstal Institution appointed in such manner as may be prescribed ; (6) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made by the State Government under the provisions of this Act ; (7) "security for good behaviour" means security or good behaviour otherwise than for political activities under section 109 or section 110 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898; (8) "Superintendent" means a Superintendent of a Borstal Institution appointed in such manner as may be prescribed.

For the purposes of this Act the State Government may establish one or more Borstal Institutions.

(1) The State Government shall appoint any person not being a police officer, to be Director of Borstal Institutions, and he shall exercise subject to the orders of the State Government, general control and superintendence of all Borstal Institutions. (2) For every Borstal Institution the State Government shall appoint a Superintendent, and such other officers as may be necessary. (3) For every Borstal Institution a visiting committee shall be appointed in such manner as may be prescribed.

(1) When any male person less than twenty-one years of age is convicted of an offence by a court of Sessions, a Magistrate specially empowered under section 30 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, or a Judicial Magistrate of the first class, or is ordered to give security for good behaviour and fails to give such security; and when by reason of his criminal habits or tendencies or associations with persons of bad character it is expedient in the opinion of the Judge or Magistrate, that he should be detained, such Judge or Magistrate may in lieu of passing a sentence of transportation or rigorous imprisonment, pass an order of detention for a term which shall not be less than two years and shall not exceed seven years when the order is passed by a court of Sessions or a Magistrate specially empowered under section 30 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, and shall not be less than two years nor exceed three years, when the order is passed by a Judicial Magistrate of the first class not so empowered. (2) When any Judicial Magistrate, not empowered to pass such order, is of opinion that an offender convicted by him is a person in respect of whom such order should be passed in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (1) he may, without passing any sentence, record such opinion and submit his proceedings and forward the accused to the Chief Judicial Magistrate to whom he is subordinate. (3) The Chief Judicial Magistrate to whom the proceedings are so submitted may make such enquiry (if any) as he may deem fit and pass such order for the detention of the offender or such other sentence or order, as he might have passed if the trial had been held by him from its commencement.

If it appears to the State Government that any male person, less than twenty-one years of age, who, having been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for an offence or having been committed to or confined in prison for failing to give security for good behaviour, is at the time of the commencement of this Act confined in the Lahore Borstal Jail, should for the reasons described in sub-section (1) of section 5 be detained, the State Government may direct that he be detained for a period not exceeding the residue of his sentence or of the period for which security was required, as the case may be, provided that such order shall be subject as regards the period of detention to any order passed on appeal against or revision of the sentence or order of commitment or confinement in prison.

Whenever it appears to the Superintendent of a Jail that any male person less than twenty-one years of age sentenced to transportation or rigorous imprisonment for an offence or committed to or confined in prison for failing to give security for good behaviour should for the reasons described in sub-section (1) of section 5 be detained, he shall cause such prisoner to be produced before the District Magistrate in whose jurisdiction the Jail is situated, and if the District Magistrate after making such enquiry as he may deem proper or as may be prescribed is satisfied that the prisoner should for the reasons described in the said sub-section be detained, he may order the prisoner to be removed from jail and detained for a period equal to the unexpired term of the transportation or imprisonment to which he was sentenced, or of the period for which security was required from him, as the case may be.

No order shall be made under the provisions of section 8— (i) until the time allowed by law for the prisoner to appeal has expired or if an appeal has been preferred until such appeal has been finally decided; or (ii) if an application made on appeal or otherwise to have the sentence altered into an order of detention, has been rejected by an Appellate Court or the High Court; or (iii) in the case of any person who has been sent to a Reformatory School in accordance with the provisions of the Reformatory Schools Act, 1897.

No person who has been previously detained for the whole period prescribed in an order of detention or who has been transferred to jail under section 20 of this Act, shall again be ordered to be detained.

Any person detained for failure to furnish security shall be released on furnishing such security.

(1) Before passing an order of detention under this Act the Magistrate, District Magistrate or Court, as the case may be, shall enquire or cause enquiry to be made into the question of the age of the offender, and after taking such evidence (if any) as may be deemed necessary or proper shall record a finding thereon. (2) A similar enquiry shall be made and finding recorded by every Magistrate not empowered to pass an order of detention under this Act before submitting his proceedings and forwarding the accused to the District Magistrate as required by sub-section (2) of section 5 of this Act.

When any Magistrate, District Magistrate or Court orders an offender to be detained, he or it, as the case may be, shall record the grounds of his or its opinion that it is expedient that the offender be detained.

Subject to any general or special directions of the State Government the visiting committee with the sanction of the Director of Borstal Institutions may at any time after the expiration of one-third of the period of detention, or of two years, whichever is shorter, if satisfied that the inmate is likely to abstain from crime and lead a useful and industrious life, by license permit him to be discharged from the Borstal Institution on condition that he be placed under the supervision or authority of any Government officer or (secular) institution or person or religious society (professing the same religion as the inmate) named in the license who may be willing to take charge of him. A license granted under this section shall be in force until the term for which the inmate was ordered to be detained has expired unless sooner suspended, revoked or forfeited.

The time during which an inmate is absent under license from a Borstal Institution shall be reckoned as part of the period of detention.

Every license granted under the provisions of section 15 shall be in such form and shall contain such conditions as the State Government may, by general or special order, direct.

Subject to any general or special directions of the State Government, a license granted under section 15 may be suspended for a period not exceeding three months by the Superintendent of a Borstal Institution or revoked at any time by the visiting committee on the recommendation of the Director of Borstal Institutions. Where the license of any inmate has been suspended or revoked he shall return to the Borstal Institution and if he fails to do so he may be arrested without warrant and taken to the institution.

Where an inmate is reported to the State Government by the visiting committee to be incorrigible or to be exercising a bad influence on the other inmates of the institution or is convicted under section 19 of this Act, or is reported by the Superintendent to have committed an offence which has been declared to be a major Borstal Institution offence by rules made by the State Government in pursuance of the provisions of sub-section (14) of section 34 of this Act, the State Government may commute the residue of the term of detention to such term of imprisonment of either description not exceeding such residue as the State Government may direct, and may order the transfer of the inmate to any jail in Haryana in order to complete the said term of imprisonment.

An inmate when being taken to or from any Borstal Institution in which he may be lawfully detained or whenever he is working outside or is otherwise beyond the limits of any such Borstal Institution in or under the lawful custody or control of an officer belonging to such Borstal Institution shall be deemed to be under detention and shall be subject to all the same incidents as if he were actually in a Borstal Institution.

Whoever, contrary to any rule under section 34, introduces or removes, or attempts by any means whatever to introduce or remove, into or from any Borstal Institution, or supplies or attempts to supply to any inmate outside the limits of such Institution and every officer of a Borstal Institution who contrary to any such rule, knowingly suffers any such articles to be introduced into or removed from any Borstal Institution to be possessed by any inmate, or to be supplied to any inmate outside the limits of Borstal Institution, and whoever contrary to any such rule communicates or attempts to communicate with any inmate, and whoever abets any offence made punishable by this section, shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to fine not exceeding Rs. 200 or to both.

The Superintendent shall cause to be affixed, in a conspicuous place, outside the Borstal Institution, a notice in English and the Vernacular setting forth the acts prohibited under section 23 and the penalties incurred by their commission.

The officer-in-charge of a Borstal Institution shall receive and detain all persons duly committed to his custody under this Act according to the directions contained in the order by which such person has been committed or until such person is discharged or removed in due course of law.

The officer-in-charge of a Borstal Institution shall forthwith after the execution of every such order as aforesaid or after the discharge or return of the person committed thereby, return such order to the Magistrate, District Magistrate or Court by which the same was issued or made, together with a certificate endorsed thereon and signed by him, showing how the same has been executed or why the person committed thereby has been discharged from detention before the execution thereof.

Officers-in-charge of Borstal Institution may give effect to any order for the detention of any person passed or issued— (a) by any Court or Tribunal in a Part A State or a Part C State; or (b) by any Court or Tribunal outside India acting under the authority of the Central Government; or (c) by any Court or Tribunal in a Part B State if the reception and detention in the Haryana of person ordered to be detained by such Court or Tribunal is authorized by the State Government by a general or special order; or (d) before the 26th January, 1950, by any Court or Tribunal in any acceding State if— (i) the presiding Judge or, if the Court or Tribunal consisted of two or more Judges, at least one of the Judges, was an officer of the Government authorized to sit as such Judge by the State or the Ruler thereof or by the Central Government; and (ii) the reception or detention in the Province of persons detained by any such Court or Tribunal has been authorized by general or special order by the Provincial Government.

An order under the official signature of an officer of such Court or Tribunal as is referred to in section 28 shall be sufficient authority for detaining any person, in pursuance of the order passed upon him.

(1) Where an officer-in-charge of a Borstal Institution doubts the legality of an order sent to him for execution, or the competency of the person whose official seal or signature is affixed thereto to pass the order he shall refer the matter to the State Government by whose order on the case he and all other public officers shall be guided as to the future disposal of the inmate. (2) Pending a reference made under sub-section (1), the inmate shall be detained in such manner, and with such restrictions or mitigations as may be specified in the warrant order.

Subject to the provision of section 33 of this Act, the provisions of section 12 and Chapter XI of the Prisons Act, 1894 and of sections 35 to 50 (inclusive) and the rules made by the State Government under section 51 of the Prisoners Act, 1900, shall apply as far as may be to Borstal Institutions established under this Act, and all reference to prisoners, imprisonment or confinement in the said sections, chapters and rules shall be construed as referring to inmates, Borstal Institutions and detention.

For the purpose of punishing Borstal Institution offences, whipping shall be inflicted upon the palm of the hand only.

The State Government may make rules after previous publication consistent with this Act- (1) for the regulation, management and classification of Borstal Institutions established under this Act and the description and construction of wards, cells and other places of detention; (2) for the regulation by number or otherwise of the inmates to be detained in each class of institution; (3) for defining the powers and duties of the Director of Borstal Institutions; (4) for the Government of Borstal Institutions, and the appointment, guidance, control, punishment and dismissal of Superintendents and other officers employed in Borstal Institutions, and for the defining of their responsibilities, duties, disabilities and powers; (5) for the maintenance of records, and the preparation and submission of reports; (6) for the selection and appointment of inmates as inmate officers and their reduction and dismissal and for defining the responsibilities, duties and powers of such officers; (7) for the temporary detention of inmates until arrangements can be made for their admission to Borstal Institutions; (8) for the admission, removal and discharge of inmates and for the disposal of their effects during their detention; (9) for feeding, clothing and bedding of inmates; (10) for the custody, discipline, grading, treatment, education, training and control of inmates; (11) for the employment, instruction and control of inmates within or without Borstal Institutions, the disposal of the proceeds of their labour; (12) for the treatment of sick inmates; (13) for classifying and prescribing the forms of education, instruction, employment and labour and regulating the periods of rest; (14) (i) for defining the acts, which shall constitute Borstal Institution offences; (ii) for determining the classification of Borstal institution offences into major and minor offences; (iii) for fixing the punishment admissible under this Act which shall be awardable for commission of Borstal Institution offences or classes thereof; (iv) for declaring the circumstances in which acts constituting both a Borstal Institution offence and an offence under the Indian Penal Code may or may not be dealt with as Borstal Institution offence; (v) for the award of marks and the shortening of periods of detention; (vi) for regulating the use of arms against any inmate or body of inmates and the use of force in the case of an outbreak or attempt to escape; (vii) for defining the circumstances and regulating the conditions under which inmates in danger of death may be released; (viii) for regulating the transfer from one part of the whole of India except Part B States to another of inmates whose term of detention is about to expire; (15) for defining articles the introduction or removal of which into or out of Borstal institutions without due authority is prohibited; (16) for the classification and the separation of inmates; (17) for rewards for good conduct; (18) for regulating the transfer of inmates from one Borstal Institution to another or to an hospital or asylum and from a Borstal Institution to a prison or from a prison to a Borstal Institution; (19) for the treatment, transfer and disposal of criminal lunatics or recovered criminal lunatics, confined in Borstal Institutions; (20) for regulating the transmission of appeals and petitions from inmates and their communications with their friends; (21) for the appointment and guidance of visitors of Borstal Institutions; (22) for prescribing conditions on which licenses may be granted, suspended, revoked or cancelled; (23) for the appointment, powers and control of parole officers; (24) for defining the powers and duties of after care societies and guardians and the conditions on which financial assistance may be given to them; (25) for the appointment of visiting committees; and (26) generally for all purposes consistent with this Act.