Jaipur Bench of Rajasthan High Court. | Photo Credit: Rohit Jain Paras
The Rajasthan High Court has issued notice to the State on a petition filed by a transwoman challenging the State government’s classification of transgender people as Other Backward Classes (OBC) for reservation in public education and employment.
A Bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice Nupur Bhati has directed the State government authorities to respond to the petition in four weeks’ time, posting the case for next hearing then.
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The petitioner, Ganga Kumari, the first transwoman to enter service as a Rajasthan police constable, has challenged a January 2023 circular issued by the State government’s Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, which places transgender people as a separate entry in the list of OBCs.
Ms. Kumari, through her petition, has argued that placing transpeople in the category of OBCs was not only unconstitutional but also counterproductive. She explained that this “could lead to” their exclusion from both OBC-related and transgender-related benefits.
Unique status
Ms. Kumari, who is being represented by advocates Vivek and Udit Mathur, further argued that the Rajasthan government’s circular fails to consider that there may be transpeople born in the General category communities or Scheduled Caste communities as well. Her petition added that the circular failed to account for the “unique status” of transpeople and denied the community the special treatment called for in the 2014 NALSA judgment of the Supreme Court.
Ever since the 2014 NALSA judgement of the Supreme Court, there has been an arguable ambiguity in the direction that asked governments to provide transpeople all kinds of reservation in public education and employment by treating them as “socially and educationally backward classes of citizens”.
While several activists, including Ms. Kumari in her petition, have argued that the Supreme Court’s direction was clear in calling for horizontal reservation for transpeople, i.e. a percentage for transpeople within each socio-economic quota category; a section in the country has interpreted the direction as a call to include transpeople in the OBC category.
The Madhya Pradesh government too has interpreted the direction in this manner, categorising transpeople as a separate entry within the State’s OBC list in April 2023.
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However, the Karnataka High Court, the Madras High Court, and the Calcutta High Court have interpreted the direction as one for horizontal reservation and ruled as such in the past three-four years.
An attempt was made by trans rights activists to approach the Supreme Court to seek clarification about its intent in the NALSA direction. But in March 2023, the Supreme Court refused to entertain the petition, even as different interpretations have been put in place.
Published – January 23, 2025 08:23 pm IST
