KOCHI: National Cadet Corps (NCC) on Tuesday approached the Kerala High Court challenging a single-judge order allowing Hina Haneefa, a transwoman and a degree student of Thiruvananthapuram University College, to join the corps.The NCC said the single judge failed to consider the extraordinary and peculiar practical issues.
The court also did not consider the preferences of the girl cadets on being faced with the need of community life with a transgender, who has got totally different physical and psychological factors, it said.
The NCC’s curriculum and training module closely follows that of gender-specific armed forces. The training also includes close-contact physical exercise and games, long and short camps where cadets stay in tents and confined accommodation.
So, gender specificity of the cadets to be taken in to account for their overall wellbeing and safety. Under these circumstances, NCC has to follow gender-specific enrolment and grouping to avoid any untoward incident.Training parameters of male and female cadets are different, thus transwomen in a girl cadets camp will have unfair advantage over other girl cadets and transmen in boys’ units will have an inherent disadvantage.
The student, who approached the court, can only be treated as a transwoman which comes under the transgender category and cannot be inducted into the female division. The learned single judge without considering the ramification directed the petitioner be inducted in the female division. Hence, the judgment is erroneous both in law and on facts, the NCC said.