Telangana HC Orders Consideration of Transgender Student in PG Medical Counselling

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday directed the Centre and the state government to consider in PG Medical counselling the case of a transgender student. The bench comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar made the interim order in a writ petition filed by Dr Praachi Rathod, the petitioner, complaining that the Central and state governments had failed to implement the Supreme Court judgment on the need to provide a third gender space and treat them as a socially and economically backward community.

Senior counsel L. Ravichander was critical of the Kaloji Narayana Rao University for Health Sciences for denying the student the opportunity, and stated that it was governed by directions of the Central and state governments.

He said, “The university does not appear to be governed by the directions of the apex court.” The petitioner complained of being treated, for a second consecutive year, as a woman candidate and that it was against her gender status.

A. Prabhakar Rao, representing the university, said the provision for reservations belonging to the third gender has to be made either by the Centre or the state government. The university on its own could not provide for such reservation in the absence of such a prescription.

Sagarika Konneru, counsel for the petitioner, raised the issue of constitutional rights of the third gender to be considered as class apart. She complained a decade after the Supreme Court judgment, the authorities had not taken action.

The bench issued an interim order directing the authorities to extend the benefit of third-gender status in addition to her status as a scheduled candidate for considering her admission in the third round of counselling, the said direction was both under the All-India quota and the state quota.