SC declines plea to raise number of prison visits by family members, lawyers

New Delhi [India], January 9 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined a petition challenging the Delhi Prison rule that restricts the right of inmates to meet family members or consult a lawyer to two meetings a week.
A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal said it was not inclined to interfere with the Delhi High Court order against which the appeal was filed.
The bench said it is a policy decision and the absence of such restrictions would make it difficult for jail authorities to handle affairs at the prisons.
"I heard counsel for the petitioner. We are not inclined to interfere," the bench stated in its order.
Earlier, on February 16, 2023, the High Court declined to relax the Delhi Prison rules that restrict the right of inmates to consult a lawyer to two meetings a week.
The High Court said the decision to cap the total number of visits was taken after careful consideration of the facilities available in prisons, the availability of staff, and the number of undertrials.
The petitioner advocate, Jai Anant Dehadrai, prayed that the prison rules should provide for an interview with legal advisors from Monday to Friday an unlimited number of times.
The petitioner, in the interim, had prayed for visits of the legal counsel to their clients in Delhi prisons more than twice a week.
The petitioner had contended that limiting the number of visits by family members, relatives, friends, and legal advisers to twice a week is violative of Article 21 of the Constitution as it limits the rights of an undertrial to have adequate resources for legal representation.