Juarez

—Petitioner seeks a writ of mandate directing respondent superior court to order the commencement of conservatorship proceedings pursuant to Penal Code section 1370, subdivision (c)(2). (All statutory references to sections of an unspecified code are to the Penal Code.) That section is one of several setting forth procedures relating to the present sanity of a defendant charged with a crime. (§§ 1367-1375.5.) If under those procedures a criminal defendant is found incompetent to stand trial, and it is further found that his competency is not likely to be regained in “. . . the foreseeable future . . .” (Pen. Code, § 1370, subd. (b)(1)), he shall be returned to court for further proceedings, one purpose of which is to determine whether he is “gravely disabled as defined in paragraph (2) of subdivision (h) of section 5008 of the Welfare and Institutions Code . . . .” (§ 1370, subd. (c)(2).) If the court’s finding on that question is affirmative, it must order the initiation of conservatorship proceedings under the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 5000 et seq.)

The only issue tendered in this proceeding is one of statutory interpretation, i.e., whether the…