The Calcutta High Court (HC), while adjudicating a criminal appeal, observed that the benefit under the Probation of Offenders Act, 1958 (1958 Act) will not be applicable in cases where a specific law enacted after it, prescribes a mandatory minimum sentence. While the accused was in his teens during the commission of the offence and has no criminal antecedent, the HC dismissed the appeal since the 1958 Act cannot be applied in derogation of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.
