NEW DELHI: A plea in Delhi High Court has sought direction to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to include data on transgender prisoners in its prison statistics report.
The plea moved by Karan Tripathi, a Delhi resident, through the Alliance Law Group contends that it’s been more than six years since the Supreme Court gave legal recognition to transgenders, yet the NCRB has failed to reasonably classify transgenders as a separate third gender in its annual publication of the Prison Statistics India report.
By not assigning a proper sex to the prison inmates, who may be transgenders, the plea claimed there cannot be a proper guarantee of their civil rights, constitutional rights and even basic human rights, thereby breaching the very tenets of the Constitution and the basis of the top court judgment.
The plea has argued that till date, only two genders appear in the report and the third gender is excluded.
The petitioner has made the MHA and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment parties in the plea.
“It is, however, interesting to point out herein that NCRB, in its other annual publications like Crimes in India and Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India, has recognised transgenders, since 2017 and 2014, respectively, as a third gender,” said the plea.
The plea cited that central jails have transgender prisoners. However, the data on transgender prisoners finds no mention in the NCRB’s report.
(With agency inputs)