The Centre on Tuesday informed the Madras High Court that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment had submitted its report to the government on the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill of 2016 and that the report was under the active consideration of the Ministry.
Justice N. Kirubakaran was apprised of the status of the Bill by Assistant Solicitor General (ASG) Su. Srinivasan since the judge had broached the subject while disposing of a writ petition filed by a transgender and sought for an explanation from the government as to whether it was serious about turning the Bill into a law or not.
Complying with the directions issued by the court, Mr. Srinivasan obtained instructions from the Ministry over the phone and informed the judge that the Parliamentary Standing Committee had submitted the report only last month and that the matter was now under the consideration of the social defence department.
When the judge wanted to know by when would the Bill turn into a law, the ASG said that he could not commit any time frame. Not in agreement with such a submission, Mr. Justice Kirubakaran said that probably time had come for the courts to violate the legal principle of refraining from issuing directions to the legislature to enact laws.
Pointing out that many countries around the world had already passed laws to protect the interests of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community, the judge wondered why there was such a delay in India alone. He later adjourned the hearing to October 25 for the ASG to submit his instructions in writing.
It was on August 18 that Mr. Justice Kirubakaran had suo motu impleaded the Union Ministries of Health, Social Justice and Law as respondents to the writ petition and directed the ASG to obtain instructions from them on the fate of the Bills aimed at protecting the interests of the transgender community.
The writ petition before the judge had been filed by a person who had sought for a direction to officials of the Madras University as well as the Anna University to change a female name and gender into that of a male in his educational certificates since he had undergone a sex reassignment surgery.
Accepting the plea, the judge had directed the Controllers of Examinations in both the universities to make the necessary amendments in the certificates related to Bachelor of Science (Software Applications) and Master of Computer Applications courses undergone by the transgender based in Kancheepuram district.
He, however, kept the writ petition alive in order to find out steps taken by the Centre to get a law enacted for the larger benefit of the transgender community.