The Kerala High Court this week held that geographical restrictions on prisoners' visits to their relatives, while accompanied by police escorts, do not violate the fundamental rights of prisoners [BG Krishnamurthy v. State of Kerala & Ors.]..According to the Kerala Prisons and Correctional Services (Management) Act, 2010, prisoners who are otherwise ineligible for parole, are allowed 24-hour visits to immediate relatives under a police escort once every six months.However, Rule 415(3) of the Kerala Prisons and Correctional Services (Management) Rules, 2014 does not allow for such visits outside the State of Kerala except in the event of the death of an immediate relative.Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas noted that the restriction does not discriminate between prisoners but merely limits prisoner visits to the boundaries of the State. "Nowhere does the Rule stipulate that a person born outside Kerala will be denied an escort visit. On the other hand, it only creates a geographical limitation or a regulation in the grant of an escort visit. Such geographical restrictions and regulations being based on sound policy of the State, this Court does not find it offensive to any of the fundamental rights under Articles 14, 15 or 19 of the Constitution of India ... By creating a geographical restriction for an escort visit, the State cannot be said to have infringed any of the constitutional mandates," the Court said in its judgment. .The judgment was passed on a petition moved by a man who is currently behind bars at a high-security prison awaiting trial in a terrorism case registered against him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA). He had repeatedly put in requests for an escort visit to meet his mother and close relatives who live in Karnataka. However, his requests were denied citing Rule 415(3).He contended that this is a direct intrusion into his fundamental rights as well as his statutory rights as it discriminates between prisoners born outside the State of Kerala and those born in Kerala..However, the Court noted that the Rule contains no reference to the prisoner's place of birth. Even a prisoner born in Kerala would not be entitled to an escort visit outside the State. Such a geographical restriction based on practical concerns is not discriminatory, the Court said. "This Court cannot ignore the practical difficulties of providing escort visits for 24 hours every six months, if, for example, the immediate relatives of a few prisoners lodged in Kerala are residing in remote areas of one of the northernmost States of the country. In such situations, providing an escort visit to all such prisoners, for 24 hours every six months would lead to chaos in prison management. Therefore, Rules, which are based on formulations of policy, that restrict such rights, ought not to be interfered with by the Court unless it is so explicitly discriminatory," the judgment stated. The Court, accordingly, dismissed the prisoner's petition. .The petitioner-prisoner BG Krishnamurthy argued his own case as party-in-person.The State was represented by Public Prosecutor Sreeja V. Senior Advocate Dhanya P Ashokan assisted the Court as amicus curiae. .[Read Judgment]
