Why can't prisoners have sex in jails, court asks Maharashtra govt

January 15, 2010

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January 2010 MUMBAI: In the backdrop of rise in number of HIV positive

prisoners, the Bombay High Court has asked Maharashtra government to examine the

possibility of allowing jail inmates to have sex with their wives in privacy.

Hearing a PIL on treatment facilities for HIV positive inmates, Justice P B

Majumdar and Justice R G Ketkar asked the state government to explore the

possibility of facilitating prisoners, who have been lodged for two to three

years in jails, to meet their wives sometime every month in total privacy.

The judges asked the government to look into the issue because they were of the

view that HIV positive cases could be possibly because of unprotected or

unnatural sex.

Advocate Anand Grover, appointed amicus curiae (friend of the court) in the

case, said, " Whether we like it or not, there is sex in jails. It is an issue

which everyone wants to sweep under the carpet " .

To a query by the court, he said allowing conjugal rights to prisoners were an

accepted norm in some Asian and European countries.

Justice Majumdar observed, " There may be physical needs. See whether a separate

place can be given to a prisoner and his wife for a day or two. The government

is spending crores of rupees to curb the AIDS menace in jails. Instead why don't

you take preventive steps " .

The court also directed the government to set up HIV- testing laboratories in

Nasik, Pune, Nagpur and Thane by January 20.

The court further directed the government to recruit medical officers for all

prisons in the state by February 20. If they refused postings in rural areas

then take disciplinary action against them, the judges said.

The bench took on record a report submitted by the Chief Judicial Magistrate in

Pune last July which said that 22 inmates of Yerwada prison had tested HIV

positive.

The report further said that although a medical officer was available, the

inmates were not given proper treatment due to absence of an expert doctor.

Besides, the nurse and staff at the prison hospital were not sufficiently

trained to treat HIV-positive patients.

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