Recently, the Supreme Court of India rejected a plea application seeking clarification that the reservation meant for transgender persons as per the 2014 judgment in the NALSA case is a horizontal reservation.

The bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud agrees to give permission to the applicant to avail other remedies in law (such as filing a separate substantive petition) for the reliefs sought. The application was filed by Grace Banu, a transgender rights activist. Senior Advocate Jayna Kothari represented the applicant.

Banu in its application noted Supreme Court in its judgement in the NALSA case, directed the Central government to treat transgender persons as a socially and educationally backward class and provide them reservations in education and public employment. However, the Court did not state how the reservation should be implemented. Therefore, the applicant stated that many states are yet to implement such reservations.

The applicant argued that the effective way of giving reservations for transgender and inter-sex persons is on the ground of gender and disability, as has been done in the case of women and persons with disabilities.

The application stated that the Ministry of Social Justice moved a cabinet note in September 2021 to include transgender persons in OBC category. Tamil Nadu government has decided to include them in the Most Backward Class category. Karnataka is the only state where they have been given horizontal reservation to the extent of 1%.

The applicant further prayed that reservations for transgender persons should include concessions in cut-off marks, and age. The following were the reliefs sought in the application :

1. Clarify/modify the judgement dated 15.04.2014 passed in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 400 of 2012 that the reservations meant for transgender persons are horizontal reservations:

2. Clarify/modify the judgement dated 15.04.2014 passed in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 400 of 2012 to the effect that reservations for transgender persons should also provide for concessions in age, cut-off marks and physical criteria, as provided to other reserved categories;

3. Clarify/modify the judgement dated 15.04.2014 passed in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 400 of 2012 to the effect that reservation should be provided for transgender persons in addition to public employment and public education also in allotment of housing sites, schemes and in local bodies.