The Madras High Court on Tuesday, January 9, asked the Tamil Nadu government to consider the possibility of providing 1 per cent horizontal reservation to transgender people in education as also in employment in all public sectors.
Horizontal reservation would provide a quota within quota, for trans and intersex persons, which means they can avail separate reservation in the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC), and general categories.
The first bench of the Madras High Court comprising Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy was responding to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by transgender activist Grace Banu Ganeshan for the reservation of transgender community.
The division bench said that it agreed with the petitioner's counsel Jayna Kothari that the reservation policy for the transgender community in the state was complicated.
The court however said that the state has however done several things for the upliftment of the community.
The division bench of the Madras High Court granted time till March 4, 2024 for the Advocate General R. Shanmughasundaram to take information from government officials regarding the same.
This was after the AG said that the reservation for transgender community was a policy decision.
The petitioner said that the transgender persons who declare themselves as women get reservation provided for women across all caste categories. Those who however declare as men or as third gender are considered only under their respective castes or under Most Backward Class (MBC) category.
The court also pointed out to the AG about the petitioner’s submission that Karnataka state had brought forward a policy of 1% horizontal reservation for transgender persons across all categories and told the AG that Tamil Nadu can also consider it.
Horizontal reservation has been a long pending demand of the trans community, who have criticised the Tamil Nadu government for not providing adequate reservations in employment and education.