Children liable to be committed to care of relative, etc

(1) Any person may bring before a juvenile court any person apparently under the age of eighteen years who, (a) is found begging or receiving alms (whether or not there is any pretence of singing, playing, performing, offering anything for sale or otherwise), or being in any street, premises or place for the purpose of so begging or receiving alms; 15 (b) is found wandering and not having any home or settled place of abode or visible means of subsistence, or is found wandering and having no parent or guardian, or a parent or guardian who does not exercise proper guardianship; (c) is found destitute, not being an orphan and having both parents or his surviving parent, or in the case of an illegitimate child his mother, undergoing imprisonment; (d) is under the care of a parent or guardian who, by reason of criminal or drunken habits, is unfit to have the care of the child; (e) is the daughter, whether legitimate or illegitimate, of a father who has been convicted of an offence involving gross indecency; or (f) frequents the company of any reputed thief, or common or reputed prostitute; or (g) is lodging or residing in a house or the part of a house used by any prostitute for the purpose of prostitution, or is otherwise living in circumstances calculated to cause, encourage or favour the seduction or prostitution of the and the court before which a person is brought as coming within one of those descriptions, if satisfied on enquiry of that fact, may order the child to be taken out of the custody, charge or care of any person, and to be committed to the care of a relative of the child or some other fit person or institution named by the court (such relative or other person or institution being willing to undertake such care), until the child attains the age of eighteen years, or for any shorter period, and may in 16 addition to such order make an order that the child be placed under the supervision of a probation officer, and the court may of its own motion, or on the application of any person, from time to time, by order renew, vary or revoke any such order. (2) A child shall not be treated as coming within the description contained in paragraph (f) if the only common or reputed prostitute whose company the child frequents is the mother of the child, and she exercised proper guardianship and due care to protect the child from contamination. (3) Every order made under this section shall be in writing, and any such order may be made by the court in the absence of the child, and the consent of any person or institution to undertake the care of the child in pursuance of any such order shall be proved in such manner as the court may think sufficient to bind that person or institution. (4) Any person or institution to whose care a child is committed under this section shall, whilst the order is in force, have the like control over the child as the parent and shall be responsible for his maintenance, and the child shall continue in the care of such person or institution, notwithstanding that he is claimed by his parent or any other person, and if any person, (a) knowingly assists or induces, directly or indirectly, a child to escape from the person or institution to whose care he is so committed; or (b) knowingly harbours, conceals or prevents from returning to such person or institution a child who has so escaped or knowingly assists in so doing, he shall be liable to a fine not exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three. 17 (5) Any court having power so to commit a child shall have power to make orders on the parent or other person liable to maintain the child to contribute to his maintenance during such period as aforesaid such sums as the court shall think fit, and may from time to time vary such orders. (6) Any such order may be made on the complaint or application of the person or institution to whose care the child is for the time being committed, and either at the time when the order for the committal of the child to his care is made, or subsequently, and the sums contributed by the parent or such other person shall be paid to such person or institution as the court may name, and be applied for the maintenance of the (7) Where any parent or other person has been ordered under this section to contribute to the maintenance of a child, he shall give notice of any change of address to the senior police officer of the district in which he resides, and if he fails to do so without reasonable excuse, he shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars. (8) The Minister may at any time in his discretion discharge a child from the care of any person or institution to whose care he is committed in pursuance of this section, either absolutely or on such conditions as the Minister approves, and may, if he thinks fit, make rules in relation to children so committed to the care of any person or institution, and to the duties and remuneration of such persons or institutions with respect to such children. 18