51. Any person subject to this Act who,- (1) without lawful excuse, detains a person in arrest or confinement without bringing him to trial or fails to bring his case before the proper authority for investigation; or (2) having committed a person to custody, fails without reasonable cause to deliver at the time of such committal, or as soon as practicable, and in any case within twenty-four hours thereafter, to the officer or other person into whose custody the person arrested is committed, an account in writing signed by himself of the offence with which the person so committed is charged;shall, on conviction by court martial, be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years or with such less punishment as is in this Act mentioned.