Woman Transgender gets Cop Job After 1-year Fight

Nangai, (24), was selected for appointment as a constable. However, she was found to be a transgender in the medical examination during training and was terminated from service on the ground that she had failed to disclose the same and appeared under the women quota.

Coming to her help, Justice S Nagamuthu of the Madras High Court has declared her as a woman and directed the TN government to permit her to join duty within six weeks, as Grade II police constable (woman) with continuity in service.

The judge was allowing a writ petition from Nangai challenging the order dated April 8, 2013 of the SP, Karur, terminating her from service. According to Nangai, in all the records from birth she was recorded as a female. She studied in a girls school and a women’s college. Pursuant to her success in the selection to the post of Gr II police constable (Woman), she was appointed in January 2011. While she was undergoing training, a medical examination was conducted and based on the report, she was removed from service.

The judge said as has been held by the Supreme Court in National Legal Services Authority Vs Union of India and others, the male to female (MTFs) were to be treated as a transgenders for the purpose of safeguarding their rights. The other transsexuals such as females to males (FTMs) will not have the benefit of the classification of third genders. Therefore, even after the said judgment, there was a legal compulsion that these FTMs were to be brought within the binary classification as male or female. If they were not brought under this binary classification, then, they will be deprived of the fundamental rights under the Constitution, the judge added.

The judge said if an individual, who was born as a female, was declared as a transsexual by the medical community, the individual cannot be kept out of the binary classification. Irrespective of the opinion of the medical, psychological, genetic and other scientific communities, these medically declared transsexuals were to be treated by the legal community only by the sexual identity given to them by birth and recognised by society. The apex court has declared that transgenders have the right to decide on their self-identified gender. In the case on hand, the petitioner’s sexual identity as female by birth and recognised by the society and her self-identity as female should be recognised by the government.