Telangana HC Puts Group IV Recruitment on Hold Over Transgender Reservation

Hyderabad: A division bench of theTelangana High Court on Wednesday said that the ongoing recruitment process to Group IV services would be subject to a batch of writ pleas on providing reservation for transgender persons. The bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J. Sreenivas Rao made the interim order while dealing with writ pleas filed by Devanth Tanusri and others challenging the inaction of the Telangana Public Service Commission (TSPSC) in providing horizontal reservations for transgender persons in Group IV services.

It was the case of the transgender aspirants in two Group IV services that the reservation matrix provided for by the TSPSC and the service rules fell short of the requirements of the apex court’s verdict in the ‘NALSA v Union of India’ case. Failure to recognise transgender both as a separate gender and as an OBC was under challenge in the writ pleas.

Senior counsel L. Ravichander pointed out that since the selection process had started, the petitioners would be fighting an academic cause if some arrangement was not made. Accordingly, the panel made it clear than any selection would be subject to further orders in the writ pleas.