Transgender Persons Act marks watershed in rights; centre should implement it in letter and spirit: SC

NEW DELHI: The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 marks a watershed in the rights of transgender’s and the centre must take lead to ensure that Act is implemented in letter and spirit by formulating policies, the Supreme Court observed on Thursday.

Emphasising on the need for implementation of the act, the bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli asked the Ministry of Civil Aviation and National Counsel for Transgender Persons to devise a policy framework for providing reasonable accommodation to transgender persons for seeking employment in various establishments.

Granting the Centre three months to complete the exercise, the top court also asked the Department of Personnel Training (DoPT), Government of India and Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to consult all stakeholders in the process of formulating the policy.

Court’s order came in the pleas which were filed by a transgender woman, Shahnavi who had applied for the post of cabin crew in Air India based on an advertisement in 2017 but her candidature was rejected.

Appearing for Shahnavi, Senior Advocate KV Vishwanathan had submitted that her candidature was not rejected due to her sexual orientation but due to her failure to secure minimum qualifying marks in the scheduled caste category.

He further submitted that she had also preferred a representation to the concerned authorities where they had responded by saying that AD was for female cabin crew members only and there wasn’t any separate category for transgenders.