Supreme Court upholds decision to cap number of visits by prisoners' relatives, counsel

The Supreme Court on January 9 upheld an order of the Delhi High Court which had said the decision to cap the number of visits by prisoners’ families, friends and legal advisors to twice a week has been taken considering the number of inmates, and it cannot be said to be “completely arbitrary”.

The Supreme Court on January 9 upheld an order of the Delhi High Court which had said the decision to cap the number of visits by prisoners' families, friends and legal advisors to twice a week has been taken considering the number of inmates, and it cannot be said to be "completely arbitrary".

A Bench of Justices Bela M. Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal said it was not inclined to interfere with the high court order as it a policy decision.

The high court, in its order dated February 16 last year, had said the decision has been taken after careful consideration of the facilities available in prisons, availability of staff and the number of undertrials.

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"In matters of policy, the courts do not substitute its own conclusion with the one arrived at by the government merely because another view is possible. Therefore, this court is not inclined to pass any order issuing writ of mandamus," the high court had said.

The high court judgement had come while disposing of a petition challenging certain provisions of the Delhi Prison Rules, 2018.