Decide in one month plea to recognise transgender as third gender for bus travel: HC to Delhi govt

The Delhi High Court has granted a month’s time to the Delhi government authorities to decide on a representation seeking legal recognition of the transgender community as the third gender in bus tickets issued by the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC).
The order came on a contempt petition filed for “wilful non-compliance” of a division bench’s October 2022 order, which had granted four months to the authorities to take a view on the representation.
The division bench had issued the order on a public interest litigation by a transgender person seeking legal recognition of the community as the third gender in bus tickets and free travel for them in DTC buses. Currently, women travelling in DTC buses are issued pink tickets that allow them to travel for free.
Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora observed that the inaction of the authorities for more than six months was “certainly protracted” but granted “one last opportunity” to the state authorities to comply with the earlier directions. The court issued notice to the Delhi government on the contempt petition by the petitioner.
The petitioner’s representation sought recognition of the transgender community as the third gender for the purpose of travelling in buses operated by the DTC. The petitioner argued that the indecision of the Delhi government was causing grave prejudice to the petitioner, who suffered during bus travel, and thus prayed for an expeditious decision on the representation.
The plea submitted that providing cost-free travel to persons belonging to the transgender community in DTC buses would be a promotion of social equality as they have always been shunned by society and treated as a community of untouchables.
“A reduction in the cost of travel for the transgender community would help in integrating them into the larger societal framework and give them an opportunity to live with dignity as currently a large number of persons belonging to the community are economically/socially downtrodden,” it said.
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 recognises the legal right of the transgender community to choose their self-perceived gender, and non-recognition of the community as the third gender in the physical tickets issued by the DTC is in contravention of the Act.
The Supreme Court has upheld the right of the transgender community to decide their self-identified gender and directed the Centre and State Governments to grant legal recognition to their gender identity. (With inputs from PTI)