Notice to Delhi govt, DG Prison over plea seeking conjugal rights of prisoners

The Delhi High Court on Friday issued a notice to the Delhi Government and the Director General (DG), Prison over a PIL seeking conjugal rights for prisoners.

The petition sought direction to Tihar Jail Authorities for arrangements to provide Conjugal Visitation Rights to the prisoners lodged there.

Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Rajender Menon and Justice Brijesh Sethi issued notice while hearing the plea filed by social activist and lawyer Amit Sahni about providing conjugal rights to prisoners.

Senior advocate Hariharan, who appeared for the petitioner, argued that the issue has been considered by various High Courts and the same requires consideration.

The Chief Justice observed that the petition involves a very sensitive and interesting issue and, thereafter, issued notice to Delhi Government and Tihar Authorities to file their response within four weeks and slated the matter for August 2.

The PIL also sought to scrap rule 608 of Delhi Prison Rule, 2018 which states "meeting to take place in the presence of a Prison Officer" particularly in a situation when a prisoner is meeting his/her spouse/lawful partner and to clarify other ancillary rules and for seeking further directions.

A conjugal visit, which may also be referred to as 'Private Family Visiting', is a visit wherein a jail inmate gets to spend time in private with a visitor, usually, a legal partner/ spouse may engage sexually.

The petition claims that the Conjugal Visitation Rights are not provided by Tihar Jail Authorities, Delhi citing that most of the prisoners fall under sexually active age group between 21-50 years.

On February 28, 2019, the 16 jails in Delhi Prisons had 15,733 inmates including 15,163 male and 570 female. The figure includes 3105 convicts, 12,136 undertrials, 13 detenues besides others. Of the entire prison population, 7,921 are in the age group of 21 to 30 years, 5809 in 30 to 50 years group and 101 inmates fall in the age group of 50 to 65 years.

Currently, 1361 convicts are serving life term while 756 are serving imprisonment ranging from five to ten years.