Supreme Court nudges Centre on transgender employment

In doing so, the court tried to take the implementation of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019 forward.
Supreme Court (Photo | EPS)
Supreme Court (Photo | EPS)

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought to open a window of opportunity for transgender people seeking jobs in government departments by directing the Centre to devise a policy framework to accommodate them.

In doing so, the court tried to take the implementation of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019 forward. A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Hima Kohli called the Act a “watershed in the evolution of the rights of transgender persons” and asked the Centre to ensure that it is implemented “in letter and spirit”.

“It’ll be necessary for the Centre in consultation with the National Counsel for Transgender Persons to devise a policy framework in which reasonable accommodation can be given to transgender persons for employment in establishments covered by the provisions of the Act,” the bench said, giving the Centre three months to do so.

The Court was ruling on a plea filed by Shanavi Ponnusamy, from Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu. Born in 1989, Ponnusamy underwent gender reassignment surgery in 2014 to become a woman. In 2017, she applied for the post of female cabin crew at Air India. She said she got the call letter and appeared for tests and fared well, but was not selected due to her gender.

Appearing for Air India, senior advocate K V Vishwanathan said her candidature was rejected as she got low marks. He added that she had approached concerned authorities and was told that the advertisement was only for female cabin crew members and there was no separate category for transgenders.

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