Jail inmates/ prisoners and the law: India
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Sex with partners
HC allows jail inmates to have sex with their partners
Ajay Sura The Times of India Jan 07 2015
In a historic verdict, the Punjab and Haryana high court has allowed jail inmates to have sex with their partners in prison as long as they are married and want to have a child. The court, in an order made public on Tuesday, held that conjugal visits or artificial insemination for progeny was a fundamental right of jail inmates.
Justice Surya Kant passed these orders while disposing of a petition filed by a couple, Jasvir Singh and Sonia, who are lodged in the Central Jail, Patiala, and who demanded conjugal rights for progeny. They were awarded death penalty by a trial court for kidnapping and killing a 16-year-old boy for a hefty ransom.
While the court denied the couple’s plea due to the heinous nature of the crime, it enlarged the petition’s scope in larger public interest. The judge held that right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution includes the right of convicts and jail inmates to have conjugal visits or artificial insemination as an alternative.
“A society which is currently involved in academic and intellectual debates on ‘gay-rights’ or the recognition of ‘thirdgender’ cannot shy away nor can it keep concealed under the carpet the pragmatic concept of conjugal visits of the jail inmates,” the court observed. “To say it differently, time has come and before it is too late, the stake-holders must sit together and deliberate upon this crucial subject and take a holistic view.” The court, however, held these rights were to be regulated by law and were the sole prerogative of the state. For this, the court ordered the constitution of a jail reforms committee to be headed by a retired high court judge. The committee would formulate a scheme for creation of an environment for conjugal and family visits in jail. forms committee to be headed by a retired high court judge. The committee would formulate a scheme for creation of an environment for conjugal and family visits in jail.
