Abdul Aziz Mohamad JCA:

The question to be decided in the appeal before us, which was the Public Prosecutor's, was whether the detention of a child for purposes of investigations should be under the Child Act 2001 or under s. 117 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC). The Public Prosecutor maintained that it should be under s. 117 of the CPC, which provides as follows in sub-s. (1) and the first sentence of sub-s. (2):

(1) Whenever any person is arrested and detained in custody and it appears that the investigation cannot be completed within the period of twenty-four hours fixed by section 28 and there are grounds for believing that the accusation or information is well founded the police officer making the investigation shall immediately transmit to a Magistrate a copy of the entries in the diary hereinafter prescribed relating to the case and shall at the same time produce the accused before the Magistrate.

(2) The Magistrate before whom an accused person is produced under this section may, whether he has or has not jurisdiction to try the case, from time to time authorize the detention of the accused in such custody as the Magistrate thinks fit for a term not exceeding f