The Madras High Court on Thursday directed Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board (TNUSRB) to appoint a transgender as Sub Inspector of Police as she is entitled to get the job.

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board (TNUSRB) to appoint K Prithika Yashini, a transgender, to the post of Sub Inspector of Police as she is entitled to get the job.

The first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana, also directed TNUSRB to include transgenders as a "third category" by the time the next recruitment process is carried out.

Yashini's application for the post was initially rejected, following which she moved the High Court.

Yashini had cited a Supreme Court judgement wherein it was ordered that the state and central governments should take steps to treat transgenders as socially and educationally backward citizens and extend them all kinds of reservation in the admissions to educational institutions and public

appointments.

The court had on 7 September ordered authorities to permit her to participate in the viva voce subject to certain conditions.

The bench said on Thursday that the discrimination suffered by transgenders would be difficult for any of the other two genres to realise. The present case is one where the petitioner was categorised as man, though she was a female. She had undergone sufferance of an exit from her house without parental protection. It is in these difficult circumstances that the petitioner has been endeavouring to eke out a living, the bench said.

The bench, while referring to a judgement by the Supreme Court, in its order said "there was absence of any column for third gender, though this aspect now stands enunciated by the judgement of the apex court which carves out the category of third gender for the purpose of safeguarding and enforcing properly their rights guaranteed under the constitution."

Pointing out that she would be the "only beneficiary" of third gender category appointment, the judges said the social impact of such recruitment cannot be lost sight of, which would give strength to the cases of transgenders.

"We are, thus, of the view that she is entitled to be recruited to the post of sub-inspector and for declaration of her result with the hope that she would carry out the duties with dedication and commitment to advance the cause of other transgenders," the judges said, appreciating Yashini's efforts and the fair stand taken by Advocate General AL Somayaji.

PTI