Gauhati High Court agrees to hear PIL on appointments to the National Council for Transgender Persons

The Gauhati High Court on Tuesday has agreed to hear a PIL seeking directions to the Central government to take immediate and effective steps in relation to the appointments to the National Council for Transgender Persons..The notification appointing members to the Council has been assailed by the petitioner for not being beneficial to the transgender community..The Bench of Acting Chief Justice Kotishwar Singh with Justice Manish Choudhury issued notice in the PIL filed by the All Assam Transgender Association, which seeks immediate and effective steps in line with Section 16 of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act of 2019, which deals with the setting up of such a Council..Section 16 of the Act stipulates that the Council must comprise five representatives from the transgender community, one each from the North, East, South, West, and North-East regions of the country. The Council is also required to have five experts from NGOs working on the cause of welfare of the transgender community, to be nominated by the government..The petition before the High Court says that in line with the NALSA judgment of the Supreme Court, the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act came to be passed by the Parliament. This Act, however, almost immediately came to be challenged before the Supreme Court. .SC agrees to hear petition filed by Assam's first transgender judge challenging validity of Transgender Act, 2019.Transgender Persons Act, 2019 violates the fundamental rights it seeks to protect: Another challenge mounted in Supreme Court.It is noted that the government proceeded to take steps under the Act despite its constitutional validity being under challenge. The PIL also adds,."Despite being aware of the fact that the 2019 Act has been challenged, the Respondent herein is making hectic arrangements to implement the 2019 Act during the present time when the country is going through a pandemic with the corona virus.".While the question of the Act's validity remains pending, the National Council for Transgender Persons came to be formed, with the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment making appointments without following "standard procedure for appointment", the plea claims.The inclusion of such appointees in the Council "is completely mala fide and does not benefit the transgender community in any way," the PIL says..The appointees include five representatives of the transgender community and four experts from NGOs. The representative from the North-East region, however, "has not been established as an active participant of the transgender rights movement in that region and has been provided the membership on an arbitrary basis", the petition states..Moreover, the legislation stipulates the appointment of five experts from NGOs, whereas in the notification under challenge, only four such members have been nominated. These four members, the PIL says, are not experts who represent NGOs involved in work with the transgender community.."As most of the experts nominated under the above mentioned notification do not have registered NGOs working towards transgender rights, their inclusion is completely mala fide and does not benefit the transgender community in any way.".The notification of appointments to the Council has been challenged for being in violation of Article 14 and "completely illegal and arbitrary" for failing to provide representation to the community and including experts working with the community. The notification of these appointments, therefore, deserves to be quashed, the petitioner association has submitted..The petition also prays for a direction to the government to re-evaluate the nominated members by putting the appointment system through a transparent procedure. A further prayer is sought for the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to put in place a procedure for nomination of members and to notify eligibility criteria etc for the same..The matter will be heard next after four weeks..The petition is filed through renowned transgender lawyer Advocate Swati Bidhan Baruah and is settled by Senior Advocate Jayna Kothari who also represented the association before the Court.The Respondents were represented by Advocate PS Talukder.Read Order: