Magistrate may order detention of persons dependent on beggar

(1) When the Magistrate has ordered the detention of a person in a work-house or a special home under this Act, he may, after making such inquiry as he thinks fit, order any other person who is wholly dependent on such person to be detained in a work-house or a special home, as the case may be, for a like period: Provided that before such order is made, such dependent person shall be given an opportunity of showing cause why it should not be made.

(2) Where the dependent person has not attained the age of fourteen years, the Magistrate shall forward him to a Juvenile Court which shall deal with him under the Tamil Nadu Children Act, 1920 (Tamil Nadu Act IV of 1920), as if the said person had been brought before it under sub-section (1) of section 29 of the said Act: Provided that where the dependent person is the beggar's own child below the age of five years and the beggar is an alcoholic mother not being a contagious leper or a lunatic, the child may be ordered to be detained in a work-house without being separated from the mother as regards the place of detention, until it attains the age of five years and thereafter dealt with as provided in this sub-section.

(3) For the purpose of this section, the Magistrate may, if necessary, cause the dependent person to be arrested and brought before himself and examined by a Medical Officer. The person so arrested shall be produced before the nearest Magistrate within a period of twenty-four hours of such arrest excluding the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the Court of the Magistrate and no such person shall be detained in custody beyond the said period without the authority of a Magistrate.