N.P.SINGH, J.

1. The appellant has been convicted under sections 302, 307 and 324 of the Penal Code by the Sessions Judge and has been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life under sec. 302, ten years under sec. 307 and two years under sec. 324. The sentences have been directed to run concurrently. The appellant is alleged to have committed the offences in question on 8-3-1982. It appears that no plea was taken in the Court below that the appellant was a child within the meaning of the Bihar Children Ordinance /Act on the date of the commission of the offence and as such he should not have been put on trial before the Sessions Judge. This plea was taken for the first time before this Court during the hearing of the appeal. The Bench hearing the appeal has referred the case for consideration of the following questions by a larger Bench.

(i) Whether the provisions of the Bihar Children Act, 1982 shall be applicable even to a case where by the time the trial commences or concludes the accused ceases to be a child although when the offence was committed he was a child within the meaning of the Act ?

(ii) Where the plea that the accused was a child within the meaning of the A