Approach administrative tribunal: Bombay HC to Lalita Salve

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has asked Lalita Salve, a female police constable from Beed district who wants to undergo a gender-reassignment operation, to approach the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT). Last week, she had approached the high court to seek permission for the operation as well as to secure her job after surgery.

Ms Salve’s lawyer, Ejaz Naqvi, on Monday mentioned the petition before seeking an urgent hearing on it. When the matter came up before a division bench of Justice S.C. Dharmadhikari and Justice Bharti Dangre, the court said,  “Why should we hear the petition? Go to the state administrative tribunal.”

Ms Salve, who now prefers to be called Lalit, had sought a month’s leave to undergo a sex reassignment surgery, but the Beed police authorities turned down her request. Through the petition she is seeking a direction to Maharashtra's director general of police (DGP) to grant her leave for the surgery.

According to the petition, Ms Salve, born in June 1988, noticed changes in her body three years ago and underwent medical tests, which confirmed the presence of the Y chromosome in her body. While men have X and Y sex chromosomes, women have two X chromosomes.

“The petitioner later undertook counselling sessions with psychiatrists at the state-run JJ Hospital. The doctors detected that she had gender dysphoria (the distress a person experiences as a result of the sex and gender they were assigned at birth) and advised her to undergo a sex reassignment surgery, if she was willing to and was of sound mind," the petition said.

Subsequently, Ms Salve approached the police and sought a month’s medical leave to undergo surgery. Which was later refused; therefore, last week she had approached the HC on the said decision of the Beed police authorities. She stated in the petition that refusing leave to her violates her fundamental rights.

Male by birth?

JJ hospital doctors have said that Lalita Salve (29) was born male albeit with congenital abnormalities. She had two testicles, of which one was surgically removed when she was seven years old, now another has to be located through an ultrasound report, they said. Highlighting her extraordinary case, doctors stated she has never had regular menstrual cycles, and only few spotting were observed, which might have been due to trauma.