No ‘third gender’ in police recruitment portal: Telangana HC orders state to accept transgender candidates’ applications

The petitioners contended that this exclusion violates the landmark Supreme Court judgment in NALSA vs. Union of India, which recognised the right to self-identification of gender, as well as the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019.

The bench had on December 9 heard the writ petition filed by Kummari Rajini and sought responses from the state government and the TSLPRB regarding the matter. On Friday, another petition filed by Syeda Kubra on similar lines was tagged along with the previous petition and heard by the bench.

‘Denial of equal opportunity in employment’

Noting that the column of the application form contains only two genders, male and female, the bench observed that “this amounts to denial of equal opportunity in employment” in violation of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India. The counsel for the respondent on Friday requested the court for more time as she had not received any instructions. The counsel for the petitioners informed the court that the last date for receiving the online application is December 18, 2025.

During the last hearing, it was also brought to the court’s notice that a 2018 PIL had resulted in directions for the state to frame a policy regarding reservation for transgender people. However, the policy has not yet been implemented, leading to the filing of a contempt case, which is currently pending.

In view of these circumstances, where the respondent’s counsel has no instructions on “an urgent issue”, the court deemed it fit to “direct the respondents to entertain the applications made by the petitioners in both the cases, either online or manually, with the statement that they are transgender persons. The applications must be accompanied by the relevant supporting documents,” the bench stated.

The matter is adjourned for further hearing next Friday.