Section 179

The Minister may appoint for every place of safety a Discharge Committee which must advise and make recommendations to the Director‑General on the discharge and aftercare of women and girls in such place of safety.

A Discharge Committee may be appointed in respect of one or more places of safety as the Minister thinks fit.

A Discharge Committee consists of such number of persons as the Minister may determine.

The Discharge Committee must review all cases of women and girls when they have been detained for 6 months, and may, after such review, recommend to the Director‑General that any woman or girl be discharged or released on licence.

The Director‑General, on the advice of the Discharge Committee, has power to order the discharge or the release on licence of any woman or girl who has been detained in a place of safety for 6 months and on such conditions as may be stated by the Director‑General in that order.

Any woman or girl released from a place of safety on licence by order of the Director‑General, who breaks the conditions of her licence, must be brought before the Director‑General, who has power to order the return of the woman or girl to the place of safety from which she was released, to be detained there for such further period as the Director‑General considers necessary, except where the woman or girl concerned, by reason of any act or omission committed while on licence, renders herself liable to prosecution for any offence, in which case she must be brought before the appropriate court.