The Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Tamil Nadu Uniformed Servies Recruitment Board (TNUSRB) to appoint a transgender, Chennai‘s K Prithika Yashini, as sub-inspector of police, making it a first of its kind appointment in the state.
The HC bench also asked the Board to include transgender as ‘third category’ in the next recruitment process, so that more people from the community could apply for jobs. Yashini’s application for the post was initially rejected, following which she moved the HC.
The landmark judgment came from the first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana.
The bench said, “We are, thus, of the view that she is entitled to be recruited to the post of sub-inspector and for declaration of her result with the hope that she would carry out the duties with dedication and commitment to advance the cause of other transgenders.”
In her defence, Yashini had cited a Supreme Court judgment which asked the state and central governments to work towards the inclusion of transgenders in the mainstream by allowing reservations in the admissions to educational institutions and public appointments.
She told the court that she identified as a male till her Post Graduate Diploma course, after which she underwent a sex change operation, and legally notified about it. She had cleared the written examination for the post, but in the field trials, she missed the 100 metre race cut-off time by a second. She was then rejected, following which she went to court.