Difficult to provide reservations to trans persons in public employment and education at present: Maharashtra govt to Bombay HC

Saraf submitted that the committee constituted by the state government will consider the aspect of reservation for transgender persons.

He added that the Centre had also not yet implemented any guidelines or regulations to implement the Supreme Court judgment in National Legal Services Authority vs Union of India case that granted various reliefs to trans persons.

The Court considered the submissions of the State government and adjourned the matter to let the expert committee consider the aspect of reservation first and asked the state to submit its recommendations to the panel.

The Court also asked the petitioner transgender person to approach the committee constituted by the state government to consider applications for government jobs by transgender persons.

The petitioner, through advocate Kranti LC, requested the HC to issue directions to the state government to have horizontal reservations for trans persons similar to the procedure or models adopted by other states following the Supreme Court order.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Sandeep V Marne was hearing a plea filed by Vinayak Kashid, a transgender postgraduate of electrical engineering, seeking a modification to a May 2022 recruitment advertisement issued by the Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Limited (MahaTransco).

On March 3, a Government Resolution (GR) was issued making a third window available for transgender persons in public employment and education. He had also said that another GR was issued to constitute a committee for preparing rules and policy; the expert committee consisting of secretaries of various departments and psychologists would give its opinion within two months.

AG Saraf had also referred to another matter, in which the government had challenged the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT) order to create a “third gender” option for all recruitments under the home department. He had submitted that the amendment to the Police Recruitment Rules would be made within one week setting out the physical standards for transgender persons.

Last December, the Court had directed the government to frame recruitment rules for transgender persons as per the 2020 Rules by February 28, 2023. The 2020 Rules provided for procedures to be followed for identifying transgender persons for employment and directed the states to frame policies to implement the law within two years.

The HC had referred to the Supreme Court judgment of 2014 in the National Legal Services Authority Vs Union of India case, had recognised several rights for the transgender community and the SC had ordered states to reserve seats for transgender persons for government jobs.

The apex court had directed the Union and state governments to take steps to treat the trans persons as the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes of citizens and extend all kinds of reservations in cases of admission in educational institutions and for public employment. The High Court on March 20 had pulled up the government for not taking decision pertaining to reservation for trans persons despite more than eight years having lapsed since the SC order.