Pride Month Win: Calcutta HC Mandates 1% Job Reservation for Transgenders

 The Calcutta High Court has mandated that the State government must ensure a one percent reservation for transgender persons in all public employment within the state.

The court noted that the state government has adopted a policy of equal treatment in employment for transgenders, but the reservation has not yet been made for them.
A single bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha directed the West Bengal government’s chief secretary to ensure 1% reservation for transgenders in all public employment.
The high court was hearing a petition filed by a transgender person who passed both the Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) 2014 and the TET 2022 but was not called for counseling or an interview.

Treated as ‘Third Gender’

The judge noted that the Supreme Court had declared in a 2014 case that ‘hijras’ and eunuchs, in addition to binary genders, should be treated as “third gender” for the purposes of protecting their rights under Part III of the Constitution.
The Apex Court also upheld transgender people’s right to choose their own gender and directed the Centre and state governments to grant legal recognition of their gender identity, whether male, female, or as third gender.
Justice Mantha also stated that the Supreme Court had directed the Centre and state governments to treat them as socially and educationally backward classes of citizens, and to “extend all kinds of reservation in cases of admission in educational institutions and for public appointments”.
The West Bengal chief secretary informed the high court that the state’s Department of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare issued a notification on November 30, 2022, stating that transgender people were entitled to equal employment opportunities without any discrimination.
The court stated that the notification clearly demonstrated that the state had adopted a policy of equal employment treatment for transgender people.
The Judge, however stated that, the reservation for transgender people has yet to be implemented in the state in accordance with the Supreme Court order.
He also directed the secretary of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education to schedule an interview and counseling for the petitioner as a special case.

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