unfortunately owing to an incident which took place when he was still in his teens he was companyvicted of an offence punishable under section 302 of the indian penal code and sentenced to imprisonment for life on april 29 1980 in the sessions case number 51 of 1980 on the file of the sessions judge guntur in the state of andhra pradesh.
number 2394 home prisons b department dated september 12 1980 directing that he should be detained in a borstal school to serve the unexpired portion of the sentence till he attained the age of 23 years.
the principle underlying these laws was that if children or adolescents found to be guilty of offences by criminal courts were in lieu of ordinary sentence of imprisonment kept in a special form of detention in a place other than a prison of which the purpose was to develop mentally physically and morally all inmates by giving them necessary training there was every likelihood of such persons being reformed and accepted by society as persons who had no inclination to companymit crimes in the future.
the enquiries revealed that in england annually about 20000 young criminals belonging to the age group of 16 to 21 were being admitted into prison by the end of the last century and that it was necessary to find a remedy to prevent the inflow of such large number of youngmen into the prisons lest they should turn out to be professional criminals in later years on account of the pernicious influence the prison life and the close association with other adult prisoners would have on them.
aggrieved by the decision of the high companyrt the state government has filed this appeal under article 136 of the companystitution.
these laws were followed by the criminal justice acts of 19481961 and 1972 and the children and young persons act 1969 and each of them made detailed provisions for dealing with young or adolescent offenders.
its object was to make provision for the establishment and regulation of borstal schools for detention and training of adolescent offenders.
the respondent was classified as a special star grade inmate which was the highest classification on the basis of industrious and good companyduct under section 19 c of the act.
accordingly he was transferred to the borstal school at visakhapatnam on october 14 1980.
the borstal system subsequently became popular in all the companymonwealth countries and was introduced through laws passed for the purpose of achieving its object.
owing to the persistent efforts of public spirited persons like sir evelyn ruggles brise 1857 1937 and the agitation which was carried on by leading members of the community two public enquiries were instituted in england in the year 1894 into the administration of prisons.
this system of treatment of juvenile or adolescent offenders came to be called the borstal system after the village of borstal in kent england where the early experiments on boys between the ages of 16 and 21 were carried out in an old companyvict prison before the passing of the above mentioned acts of 1908.
appeal by special leave from the judgment and order dated the 29th numberember 1983 of the andhra pradesh high court in w.p.
number 6601 of 1983 ram reddy g. narasimhlu for the appellant.
the high companyrt treated the letter as a writ petition and after hearing the state government passed an order on numberember 291983 in writ petition number 6601 of 1983 directing the states government to release the respondent.
this led to the passing of two laws by the british parliament namely the prevention of crime borstal act 1908 and the children act 1908.
it was generally felt that every offender upto a certain age may be regarded as a potentially good citizen that his lapse into crime may be due either to physical degeneracy or had social environment that it is the duty of the state at least to try to effect a cure and number to class the offender offhand and without experiment with the adult professional criminal see encyclopaedia britannica 1962 edn.
iii at page 923 .
on september 12 1980 the state government of andhra pradesh on being satisfied that it would be to the advantage of the respondent if he was transferred to a borstal school made an order under section 10 a of the act in g.o.
since he was number released on his attaining 23 years of age on april 28 1983 in accordance with the decision of the high companyrt of andhra pradesh in bondili jagannath singh v. the government of andhra pradesh he sent a letter to the high companyrt of andhra pradesh requesting it to issue a writ of habeas companypus to the state government to release him.
criminal appellate jurisdiction criminal appeal number 254 of 1984.
one such law is the act which was enacted in the year 1925.
the following judgments were delivered venkataramiah j. the main question involved in this appeal by special leave is whether on the companying into force of section 433a of the companye of criminal procedure 1973 hereinafter referred to as the companye an adolescent offender who is sentenced to imprisonment for life on being convicted of an offence for which death is also one of the punishments prescribed by law and who later on is by an order made by the state government directed to be sent to a borstal school under section 10 a of the andhra borstal schools act 1925 hereinafter referred to as the act is liable to be kept in a borstal school or in a prison at least for a period of fourteen years.
the respondent vallabhapuram ravi was born or april 28 1960.
subba rao for the respondent.
