2 months ago
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The Rajasthan High Court has modified its March 30 verdict to expunge definite portions criticising the precocious enacted Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026. In a clarificatory bid issued connected April 2, the tribunal said that its observations that the amendment diluted law guarantees had been included “by mistake” and were “neither intended nor necessary.”
The March 30 ruling connected a petition filed by a transgender pistillate included an epilogue authored by Justice Arun Monga, which observed that the caller law, by curtailing the close to sex self-identification, departs from the “constitutional baseline” acceptable by the Supreme Court’s 2014 ruling successful National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) v. Union of India. It further noted that the amendment risked reducing what the apical tribunal had recognised arsenic an “inviolable facet of personhood” to a “contingent, State-mediated entitlement”.
The amendment Bill was passed successful Parliament past week and became instrumentality with the President’s assent precocious connected Monday (March 30).
‘Included by mistake’
In its April 2 order, the Rajasthan HC Bench observed that definite portions had been inadvertently included successful the epilogue of the earlier judgment. It accordingly directed the deletion of paragraphs which stated that the rights of transgender persons indispensable not beryllium “rendered illusory by procedural constraints” and which criticised the amendment for making ineligible designation of sex individuality contingent upon “certification, scrutiny, oregon different forms of administrative endorsement”.
“Upon our re-reading of the epilogue, it appears that by mistake the pursuing substance was included therein, though it was neither intended nor necessary,” said the Bench, which besides included Justice Yogendra Kumar Purohit.
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However, the judges declined a petition that the epilogue beryllium excluded from the judgement oregon disregarded for precedential purposes. “Having heard counsel and perused the application, we are not persuaded to judge the submission that the epilogue dated 30.03.2026 should not beryllium work arsenic portion of the judgment… Accordingly, nary specified orders are warranted successful that regard,” the Bench said.
The ruling came successful a lawsuit arising from a petition filed by Ganga Kumari, a transgender pistillate moving successful the Rajasthan Police. She sought horizontal reservations for transgender persons successful nationalist employment, meaning a abstracted quota for trans radical wrong each socio-economic preservation category. Challenging a notification issued by the Rajasthan authorities placing each transgender radical nether the different backward people (OBC) category, the petitioner contended that specified a classification was discriminatory, arsenic it failed to relationship for transgender radical who whitethorn beryllium to the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), economically weaker sections (EWS), oregon the wide category.
‘Changing ineligible landscape’
In the revised epilogue, the Bench retained its presumption that the close to self-identify one’s sex is an “intrinsic facet of dignity, autonomy, and idiosyncratic liberty nether Articles 14, 15, 16 and 21 of the Constitution” and “not a substance of concession, but a substance of right”. It, however, added that the epilogue is to beryllium treated arsenic a “statement of facts successful the process of a changing ineligible landscape”.
The Bench further clarified that the epilogue would present grounds that, portion the judgement was being finalised, Parliament had passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026, though it had not yet travel into unit arsenic it was awaiting Presidential assent and ceremonial notification. It besides added a caveat directing the State authorities to guarantee that immoderate argumentation model evolved pursuant to the court’s directions remains “within the contours of the existing instrumentality arsenic connected the day of the judgment, i.e. March 30, 2026.”
In the deleted portions of the epilogue, the tribunal had directed the Rajasthan authorities to guarantee that immoderate argumentation framed successful airy of its judgement would “preserve, to the fullest grade possible, the rule of self-identification, wrong the contours of the amended law”. It had besides cautioned the State to stay “mindful” that statutory developments cannot beryllium implemented successful a mode that dilutes “constitutional guarantees” oregon subjects the process of sex self-identification to “impermissible constraints”.
‘Mere eyewash’
Ruling successful favour of the petitioner, the court, connected March 30, struck down the State government’s circular and held that by subsuming transgender radical wrong the OBC list, those belonging to the SC, ST, oregon different categories were deprived of immoderate meaningful benefit. It observed that specified a classification was a “mere eyewash” and forced transgender persons to take betwixt their sex individuality and their close to caste-based reservation.
The tribunal besides pointed to information placed connected grounds by the State, which indicated that the OBC classification had not benefited immoderate transgender idiosyncratic to date. In presumption of this, it directed the State authorities to assistance a 3% further weightage successful marks to transgender candidates crossed each preservation categories successful nationalist employment until a broad argumentation is framed successful this regard.
It further ordered the constitution of a committee, to beryllium headed by the Principal Secretary of the Social Welfare Department and comprising representatives of societal activists and the transgender community, to “assess the grade of compounded marginalisation faced by transgender persons crossed SC, ST, SEBC/OBC, and Open categories vis-a-vis others.”
