Conjugal Rights Of Prisoners

Kanak Shukla, IILM University, Greater Noida

ABSTRACT

Incarceration no longer dissolves the essential human need for a connection; however, the conjugal rights of prisoners in India are still a highly contested issue. This research paper deals with the landmark case Jasveer and Others v. State of Punjab and Haryana (2022)1to discover out the point where the state defence takes precedence over the rights of an inmate for fulfilment of family life, guaranteed in Article 21 of the Indian constitution. The global network is divided over the benefits and curses of such privilege; some argue that it is a privilege; recent traits hold that the same is an extension of our fundamental human rights, constitutionally endowed as human rights guaranteed to be fundamental and therefore untouchable. In India, the jurisprudence on the idea of conjugal rights is still in its nascent stage. There is no statute in India that discusses or confers conjugal rights to a prisoner. In the absence of the same, the inmates knock at the door of the courts under Article 212 of the Indian Constitution. This paper analyses the impact of the ruling for the larger prison reform in India to suggest that recognition of conjugal rights can lead to more humane correctional practices and help in the rehabilitation of the inmates. The paper also advocates for strong and workable suggestions that ease conjugal visits and at the same time provide institutional protection. In the end, this paper argues that Jasvir and Others is a landmark judgment not only in terms of the legal precedent but also augurs the discourse on human rights in the Indian prison, bringing forward the need for the humane approach keeping in mind the humanity of the prisoner demanding correctional reforms leading to changes in the correctional provisions so that it is aligned with the standards of respect for family life and dignity. In this paper, the author studies the selection made by the judiciary in these cases besides the law prevalent in other jurisdictions in the matter of conjugal rights.

Keywords: Conjugal Rights of Prisoner's, Incarceration, Jasvir Singh Case, Article 21 of Indian Constitution, Model Prison Manual of 2016, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), United Nations Standard Minimum Rules, 1955, Synthetic Insemination, Reformative Theory.