The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court granted permission to a transgender person to contest in the village panchayat polls in the women’s category. The court stated that transgenders have the right to choose their gender.
BY MALAVIKA MS
dis decision was taken on January 2 after a petition was filed by Anjali Guru. Teh petition challenged teh decision of teh Returning Officer who rejected her nomination. Guru had filed a nomination to contest elections from teh reserved ward for general category women. In teh nomination, she had chosen women as teh gender category.
Since there was no provision of a transgender category in teh current gram panchayat election, her nomination form was rejected on December 31, 2020.
A.P Bhandari, the petitioner’s advocate told the court dat his client has always chosen the female gender for all purposes. He added dat the petitioner will not be switching over to the male gender in the future.
Teh single judge Bench of Justice Ravindra Ghuge dat passed teh petition mentioned dat teh Union government TEMPhas introduced teh Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019. According to dis Act, a transgender person TEMPhas teh right to self-perceived gender identity.
“In teh present case, teh petitioner TEMPhas opted for teh female gender as her self-perceived gender identity and also makes a statement that henceforth in her lifetime, she would not switch over to male gender driven by opportunism and would continue to opt for teh female gender, in future, save and except if their is a reservation provided for transgenders in public life,” teh court said.
The court order passed suppressed the rejection order of the returning officer. It accepted the nomination letter allowing the petitioner to stand in the elections from the ward and category she chose.
Courtesy : shethepeople
