HC: Is there a policy on right to procreation during jail term in Haryana

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 17

Can a jail bar a prisoner from exercising his right to procreation in Haryana? The Punjab and Haryana High Court today asked the state to specify. Taking up a wife's plea to have conjugal relations with her murder-convict husband, a Division Bench directed the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) to file an affidavit indicating whether or not a policy on the matter was in place.

Appearing before the Bench of Justice Rajan Gupta and Justice Karamjit Singh, the petitioner-wife contended that her husband was convicted of murder and other offences under Sections 302 and 307of the IPC and the Arms Act by the Gurugram Additional Sessions Judge vide judgment dated May 30, 2018.

He is lodged in the Bhondsi district jail in Gurugram.

Seeking a direction to the state and other respondents to permit conjugal relations with her husband, the petitioner contended that the right to procreation was alive even during incarceration. Elaborating, her counsel contended the right could be traced to Article 21 of the Constitution, read with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

After hearing the contentions, the Bench asserted that it appeared that in the case of "Jasvir Singh and another versus the State of Punjab and others" a question was framed whether the penology interest of the state permitted or ought to permit the creation of facilities to exercise the right to procreation during incarceration. Another issue before the court was whether the right could be termed as "right to life" and "personal liberty" guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.

"As per the judgment, the answer appeared to be in the affirmative," the Bench asserted, while issuing a notice of motion to the state and other respondents.

An Additional Advocate General, who accepted the notice on the state's behalf, was then asked by the Bench to spell out "whether any policy has been framed by the state government in light of the judgment in Jasvir Singh's case".

Responding to the court query, he submitted that instructions in this regard would be sought from the Additional Chief Secretary (Home). "Let his affidavit be filed on or before the next date of hearing," the Bench asserted. The case will come up in the last week of March.

from The Tribune https://ift.tt/3lqgil7