State to make separate provision for transgenders in govt recruitments

Mumbai The Maharashtra government on Monday informed the Bombay high court that it will issue a government resolution within a week directing all its departments to provide a third option, other than male and female, so that transgenders can apply for employment and to education institutes

Mumbai The Maharashtra government on Monday informed the Bombay high court that it will issue a government resolution within a week directing all its departments to provide a third option, other than male and female, so that transgenders can apply for employment and to education institutes.

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The assurance was given by advocate general Birendra Saraf in a petition filed by a transgender, who was unable to apply for a job of assistant engineer offered by MahaTransco last year as there was no third gender option in the application form.

The response of the state government will also bring closure to a similar case, wherein the state challenged an order of the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT), which directed the home department to provide the third gender option for transgenders aspiring to apply for jobs in the police recruitment drive, and formulate testing criteria for such aspirants.

The MAT had passed the order after hearing the application of two transgender persons, who were unable to apply for jobs in the police recruitment drive due to lack of a third gender option.

The division bench of acting chief justice SV Gangapurwala and justice SV Marne was hearing the petition of Vinayak Kashid, a transgender person, who had sought directions to MahaTransco to implement the directions of the Supreme Court. The apex court had asked the Central government and states to provide reservations in government jobs.

In his petition filed through advocate Kranti LC, Kashid had claimed that the company was owned and run by the state government and hence, was obliged to implement the directions of the apex court.

The company, in its affidavit, had stated that in the absence of any constitutional or statutory reservation for transgender persons, its decision to refuse the same was in accordance with the law. The HC bench had directed the state to file its reply.

However, before the state filed its reply, the state government filed a petition challenging a MAT order which directed it to include reservations for transgenders. In light of the SC directions, the HC had asked the state to inform it as to when and how the 2014 directions would be implemented.

On Monday, when Kashid’s petition came up for hearing, AG Saraf informed the bench that as per the HC’s December 2022 directions, the state was in the process of setting up a committee within a week for implementing the Central Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules of 2020 and a report on the rules would be submitted thereafter.