Conjugal rights in jail: HC seeks govt’s reply

New Delhi: Delhi high court on Friday sought a response from Delhi government and prison authorities on a PIL seeking conjugal visitation rights for prisoners.

Terming the issue raised in the plea as “very interesting”, a bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Brijesh Sethi issued notice to the AAP government and the director general of prisons, seeking their stand on the petition by lawyer Amit Sahni.

In his plea, Sahni has argued that conjugal visits in jail should be treated as a fundamental right of prisoners and their spouses.

The plea said that at present under the state’s prison rules, meeting between an inmate and his or her spouse takes place in the presence of a prison officer and given no privacy, adding that this rule should be scrapped.

The petition argues that “despite courts taking a progressive approach and various countries allowing conjugal visits considering it an important human right and also in the light of studies backing conjugal visits as a factor to cut down crimes in jail and reform inmates, Delhi Prison Rules, 2018 are totally silent on the issue.”

It contends that conjugal visitation rights ought to be provided in prisons in the state as most of the prisoners fall in the sexually active age group and maintains that private meetings with a spouse cannot be denied to prisoners on grounds of existing provisions of parole and furlough. It added that these provisions were anyway not available to undertrial prisoners.

The PIL claims conjugal visits not only ensures fundamental and human rights of those incarcerated, but also their spouses who suffer without any wrong. “One should not overlook the plight of the spouse of those incarcerated who suffer the punishment of denial of conjugal relationship without having done any wrong,” the plea said.