Kerala High Court bats for transgender rights

Source:-https://www.newindianexpress.com

KOCHI: The transgender community has a reason to cheer as the Kerala High Court on Thursday observed that a person cannot be denied legitimate rights merely because he/she is a transgender, particularly when such person has assigned to a particular gender.

Justice Devan Ramachandran made the observation when the petition filed by Hina Haneefa, a transwoman and a student of Thiruvananthapuram University College, challenging NCC’s (National Cadet Corps) exclusion of transgender from their program in the college. She sought a directive to allow her to take part in the enrolment process for joining the NCC unit of University College, Thiruvananthapuram. Raghul Sudheesh, counsel for the petitioner submitted that the enrollment process is scheduled to happen on November 15, and sought an interim order to admit her in the program.

When the case came up for hearing, the central government submitted that the petitioner cannot be included in the enrolment process for the NCC unit of the college because she is a transgender, though assigning herself the identity of the women.

Then the court replied that it cannot accede to the submission of the central government without further inquiry into the matter since, going by the trans-gender policy and the applicable statutes, a person cannot be denied legitimate rights merely because he or she is a transgender. The court adjourned the case to November 30 and directed that one seat in the NCC unit should be kept vacant.

The petitioner was assigned the male gender at the time of birth and at the age of 21, thereafter, he underwent sex reassignment surgery from male to female in 2018. The petition stated that the associate officer of NCC at the college has denied entry to the program stating that there was no provision for enrollment of a transgender student in the NCC at present. As per section 6 of the National Cadet Corps Act, the enrolment criteria are limited to male and female students and do not mention transgender students. This was highly discriminatory. The Supreme Court had made it clear that the fundamental rights granted under the Constitution of India will be equally applicable to transgender and gave them the right to self-identification of their gender as male, female or third gender.

The petitioner also submitted that the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act bans unfair discrimination against transgender persons in educational establishment and services. The petitioner further sought a directive to amend the enrolment criteria to include the transgender community.