The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to modify its 2014 order on transgenders while clarifying that lesbians, gays and bisexuals are not part of the “third gender”.
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to modify its 2014 order on transgenders while clarifying that lesbians, gays and bisexuals are not part of the “third gender”.
A bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and N.V. Ramana, while dismissing a clarification petition filed by the Narendra Modi government, asked additional solicitor general Maninder Singh, appearing for the Centre, “Why should we not dismiss the application with costs,” adding, “No clarification is required. The application (of Centre) is disposed of.”
On April 15, 2014, the Supreme Court in a significant verdict had held that transgenders, shall be treated as the third gender, apart from males and females, and would be entitled to all fundamental rights, besides reservation benefits accruing to the socially disadvantaged and backward communities like OBCs.
The Modi government, without implementing the directions filed an application soon after assuming office, seeking clarification whether lesbians, gays and bisexuals would also be covered by the ruling. It was seemingly confused by the abbreviation, LGBT.
During Thursday’s hearing, ASG Singh said it is not clear from the 2014 verdict if lesbians, gays and bisexuals are transgenders or not, and a clarification in this regard was needed.
Senior counsel Anand Grover, appearing for the transgender community, told the bench that the Centre’s application was motivated as it was intended to delay or scuttle the implementation of the historic judgment.
The SC, in its 2014 verdict, had clarified that transgender does not include gay, lesbians, bisexuals. “The grammatical meaning of ‘transgender’, therefore, is across or beyond gender. This has come to be known as umbrella term which includes gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and cross dressers within its scope. However, while dealing with the present issue we are not concerned with this aforesaid wider meaning of the expression transgender,” the SC had said.
In its verdict it had also said that Section 377 of IPC is being misused by police and other authorities against transgenders and their social and economic condition is far from satisfactory.
In September 2014, the Centre had filed an application in the apex court seeking clarification on the definition of transgender and on the grant of OBC status to transgenders, saying all such people cannot be clubbed under OBC category as some of them are SC/ST by birth.
