31. Contribution of parent.- (1) The Court which makes an order for the detention of a youthful offender or child in a reformatory or industrial school, or for the committal or a child or young person to suitable custody under this Act, may order the parent or other person liable to maintain the youthful offender, young person or child to contribute to his maintenance, if able to do so, in the prescribed manner.
(2)The Court, before making an order under sub-section (1), shall inquire into the circumstances of the parent or other person liable to maintain the youthful offender, young person or child, and shall record the evidence, if any, in the presence of the parent or such other person, as the case may be, or, when his personal attendance is dispensed with, in the presence of his pleader.(3)The persons liable to maintain a youthful offender, young person or child shall, for the purposes of sub-section (1), include, in the case of illegitimacy, his putative father against whom an order under section 488 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (Act V of 1898), has already been passed, or who has been otherwise declared to be the putative father by any competent Court or authority:Provided that where the youthful offender, young person or child is illegitimate and an order for his maintenance has been made under section 488 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, the Court shall not ordinarily make an order for contribution against the putative father, but may order the whole or any part of the sums accruing due under the said order for maintenance to be paid to such person as may be named by the Court, and such sums shall be applied by him towards the maintenance of the youthful offender, young person or child.(4)Any order under this section may be enforced in the same manner as an order under section 488 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (Act V of 1898).
