Chandigarh: In a historic judgement, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday allowed jail inmates to have sex with their married partners. The court, in an order, held that the right of convicts and jail inmates to have conjugal visits or artificial insemination for progeny was a fundamental right.
Justice Surya Kant passed the orders while disposing of a petition filed by a couple - Jasvir Singh and Sonia - who are currently lodged in the Central Jail, Patiala.
The couple was awarded death penalty by a trial court for kidnapping and killing a 16-year-old boy of a rich Hoshiarpur family for a hefty ransom. The duo had sought permission to stay together and resume their conjugal life for the sake of progeny. They wanted the court to order the jail authorities to make the necessary arrangements in this regard.
Jasvir had pleaded that he is the only son of his parents and that they had been arrested in the case within eight months of their marriage. The petitioners claimed that their demand was not for personal sexual gratification.
The court, however, denied Jasvir's plea considering the heinous nature of the crime committed, but enlarged the scope of the petition in larger public interest.
It has ordered formation of a jail reforms committee headed by a retired high court judge to formulate a scheme for conjugal and family visits in jails.
The judge said, "A society currently involved in debates on gay-rights or recognition of third-gender, cannot shy away from the pragmatic concept of conjugal visits of jail inmates. Time has come for stake-holders to sit together and deliberate on this crucial subject."
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