KRISHA KAMAL | PRESIDENCY UNIVERSITY,BANGALORE | 15th March 2020
Introduction
Conjugal rights are basically the rights of married people to have a sexual relationship with their respective spouses.
Conjugal Rights are dealt under the Personal Laws and any decree related to these rights is supposed to be come into action according to the Civil Procedure Code, 1908.
Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1995 gives the right to the husband or wife to approach the court for the restitution of these rights if he/she has been withdrawn from the society of their partner without any reasonable excuse. This right can be claimed only if the partners are not living together and the aggrieved is not having any sexual relationship with his/her spouse. In these kinds of cases the burden of proof initially lies on the petitioner and once the petitioner successfully proves then the burden of proof shifts to the respondent and the respondent is expected to highlight before the court, the reasonable excuses for staying away from the petitioner.
Conjugal Rights of Prisoners
The Indian Laws don’t prevent the prisoners to have a sexual relationship with their spouse. In case of Jasvir Singh and Anr V. State of Punjab, CWP No.5429 of 2010, the court held that Article 21 of the Indian Constitution includes the rights of convicts to have conjugal rights and the court also directed to form a Jail Reforms Committee in order to make provisions related to the grant of the right to procreate of prisoners in a suitable conditions and reasonable facilities for the same rights.
Conjugal Rights of Defence People
Unlike prisoners’ rights to procreate there isn’t any special discussion going on the restitution of conjugal rights of people who are a part of defence. Apparently they also stay away from their spouse and do not enjoy their conjugal rights fully. There are many cases where it has been found that the partners don’t even get enough time to get settled together as the one who is serving the nation as a part of defence has to get back on the duty. Often it is also observed that under certain circumstances they are asked to join back before their leave ends.
The Kunan Poshspora incident was where the Indian Security Forces were alleged for a mass rape that occurred in the year 1991 at Kunan and Poshspora village (PoK region). The outcome of this incident was that, that the Government of India found these allegations baseless because of insufficient evidence and issued a statement accusing the allegations as a terrorist propaganda.
The whole incident left a very huge social impact. Definitely there is no justification of a crime but there are certain requirements of human body which needs to be fulfilled in a prescribed and acceptable manner. The basis of conjugal rights is that, that man is a social animal and it has been scientifically proven that human needs partner to share joy and sorrows with. Psychology expert Dr. Aaron Ben-Zeev has also mentioned in one of his theory that it is very important for humans to have a partner for sharing a mental and physical bond as it is good for their mental and physical health.
The amount of time the defence people gets to spend with their spouse is very less compared to the time they stay away from each other. Not ideally but in a way their conjugal rights are controlled by the rules and regulations of the defence norms. Apparently this is a violation of their fundamental right granted under Article 21 of the constitution.
It’s high time where people need to come up and show their concern over this issue. The set of people who are protecting the citizens of the nation by risking their lives should not be reprieved of any fundamental rights. Keeping the number of people in the defence the provision of their leaves should be revised and a better provision should come into picture with solutions of the concern raised here.
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