The Indian government Wednesday (17 June) asked the Supreme Court to define the word ‘transgender’ after it was challenged over the lack of a third gender option on applications for civil service exams.

The Centre said it could not enact a landmark ruling recognizing the South Asian country’s more than 490,000 transgender citizens if it did not know what it meant.

‘Since the Supreme Court judgment did not clarify the term "transgender," we have already moved an application for clarification on the definition of transgender. After clarification, rules can be framed,’ it said, noting there was no definition of ‘transgender’ in the medical dictionary.

In April 2014, the nation’s top court recognized the existence of a third sex and instructed the central and state governments give transgender people quotas in government jobs.

But without a third gender option on application forms, transgender people were unable to apply for the civil services examination scheduled for 12 August.

Earlier this week, a petition was filed at Delhi High Court court asking the Department of Personnel and Training and the Union Public Service Commission to explain why there was no transgender option, despite last year’s ruling.

The advocate who filed the petition, Jamshed Ansari, said the inclusion of a third gender option would ‘benefit the transgender community who are socially excluded from public employment and are suffering from social backwardness in the society.’

Transgender activists have complained that central and state governments had been too slow in implementing the Supreme Court’s decision.

‘The transgender community comprises of Hijras, eunuchs, Kothis, Aravanis, Jogappas, Shiv-Shakthis etc and they, as a group, have got a strong historical presence in our country in the Hindu mythology and other religious texts,’ Ansari wrote in his petition.