Section 17

When a person is convicted at one trial of any two or more distinct offences the court may sentence him for such offences to the several punishments prescribed therefor which such court is competent to inflict; such punishments when consisting of imprisonment to commence the one after the expiration of the other in such order as the court directs or to run concurrently if the court so directs, but it shall not be necessary for the court, by reason only of the aggregate punishment for the several offences being in excess of the punishment which it is competent to inflict on conviction of one single offence, to send the offender for trial before a higher court:Provided that if the case is tried by a District Court or Magistrate’s Court the aggregate punishment of imprisonment shall not exceed twice the amount of punishment which such Court in the exercise of its ordinary jurisdiction is competent to inflict.