20. Attendance at Court of parent of child or young person charged with an offence, etc.- (1) When a child or young person is charged with any offence, or when a child is brought before a Court on an application for an order to send him to an industrial school, his parent or guardian may, in any case, and shall, if he can be found and resides within a reasonable distance and the person so charged or brought before the Court is a child, be required to attend at the Court before which the case is heard, during all the stages of the proceedings, unless the Court is satis tied, that it would be unreasonable to require his attendance.
(2)When the child or young person is arrested, the officer in charge of the police-station to which he is brought shall forthwith inform the parent or guardian, if he can be found, of such arrest, and shall also cause him to be warned to attend at the Court before which the child or young person will appear.(3)The parent or guardian, whose attendance is required under this section, shall be the parent or guardian having the actual possession and control of the child or young person:Provided that if the parent or guardian is a person other than the father, the attendance of the father or, if the father is dead or cannot be found, the attendance of the nearest adult male relative may also be required.(4)The attendance of the parent of a child or young person shall not be required under this section in any case where the child or young person was, before the institution of the proceedings, removed from the custody or charge of his parent by an order of a Court.(5)Nothing in this section shall be deemed to require the attendance of the mother or the female guardian of a child or young person, if such mother or female guardian does not, according to the customs and manners of the country, appear in public, but any such person may appear before the Court by a pleader or agent.
