In a breather to the transgenders across the country, the Punjab and Haryana high court issued instructions to the central government to issue a notification making transgenders eligible for applying to the government services.
The landmark judgment came from the division bench of acting chief justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and justice Ajay Kumar Mittal on a public interest litigation(PIL) filed by Kajal Mangal Mukhi, a transgender.
An advocate by profession, Mukhi had asserted that despite being academically and otherwise proficient, transgenders were not permitted to apply for government jobs. The petitioner had also sought directions for reservation of some posts in government jobs for transgenders.
Appearing for the union government, advocate Onkar Singh Batalvi asserted that as per the instructions received from the union ministry of personnel and training, transgenders are not barred from entering into government jobs.
The union government had been earlier opposing the contentions made in the PIL and took a lot of time to clear its stand whether the transgenders should be considered applicable for applying in government jobs.
However, in its affidavit submitted by the Punjab government on Wednesday it was informed that the state had issued the notification on March 4 in this regard. It was stated that a separate column Transgender(T) other than a Male(M) and Female(F) would be incorporated in all the application forms.
{{/usCountry}}However, in its affidavit submitted by the Punjab government on Wednesday it was informed that the state had issued the notification on March 4 in this regard. It was stated that a separate column Transgender(T) other than a Male(M) and Female(F) would be incorporated in all the application forms.
{{/usCountry}}It was further submitted that applicant in the Transgender(T) category would be considered as male for all government jobs. This had been done keeping in view the public sensitivity involved in certain jobs exclusively earmarked for women in view of specific nature of the jobs like in health department(Auxillary Nurse Midwives), women and child development(anganwari workers), education department(female teachers) etc.
Whereas, Haryana government had clarified its stand that being a eunuch/transgender is not a criteria from debarring them from recruitment in government service medically, provided they are mentally and physically fit. It was informed that Haryana would also follow the guidelines as issued by the Punjab government in this regard.