HC seeks Delhi govt. reply on PIL for conjugal visitation rights to inmates

Delhi HC seeks Delhi govt's reply on PIL seeking conjugal visitation rights for prisoners. PIL states that such rights are not provided by jail authorities, though most prisoners fall under sexually active age group. HC grants 6 weeks' time to govt to seek instructions & posts case for further hearing.

The Delhi High Court has sought the Delhi government’s reply on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking necessary arrangements for providing conjugal visitation rights to prisoners lodged in the city jails.

A conjugal visit, also referred to as ‘private family visiting’, is a provision where an inmate gets to spend time in private with a visitor, usually a legal partner/spouse, and may engage sexually.

Filed by social activist and advocate Amit Sahni, the PIL stated that conjugal visitation rights are not provided by jail authorities in Delhi, though most prisoners fall under the sexually active age group of 21-50 years.

Noting that the city prisons house over 15,000 inmates, Mr. Sahni said, “Even Rule 608, Delhi Prison Rules, 2018, does not provide a private meeting of an inmate with his/her spouse.”

According to Rule 608, inmates are allowed to have an interview with family or friends, but in the presence of a prison officer.

Mr. Sahni gave the example of a verdict by the Punjab and Haryana High Court which held that “the right to procreation survives incarceration”. “Such a right is traceable and squarely falls within the ambit of Article 21 of our Constitution read with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” he submitted.

Mr. Sahni said that conjugal relationship is one of the basic needs of the human body and to establish and maintain such a relationship is the fundamental and human right of the prisoner and his or her spouse.