The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu government to mandatorily provide horizontal reservation to all persons identifying themselves as transgender in the state.

Horizontal reservations refers to reservation given to a class or group cutting across groups enjoying vertical reservation.

The court also struck down a 2015 state government order (GO) that said that a trans person will be classified under the most backward class (MBC) if they don’t have a community certificate. The court was hearing a petition filed by Rakshika Raj, a trans woman nurse belonging to a Scheduled Caste community, seeking to quash the GO that considers her gender as her caste identity and to direct the state government to provide horizontal reservation.

The petitione stated that according to this amendment, all trans persons who do not possess a community certificate are designated as MBC persons irrespective of their caste and contended that it was “discriminatory” and in violation of the Supreme Court’s judgement in the 2014 NALSA vs Union of India case

The High Court ruled that the GO was violative of Articles 14 (equality before law), 15 (prohibition of discrimination), 16 (equality of opportunity in matters of public employment), 19 (protection of certain rights regarding freedom of speech) and 21 (protection of life and personal liberty).

GO Ms No 28 dated April 6, 2015 was passed by the Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare (BCC) Department. The GO states that ‘transgender’ was added as a category in the MBC list as per the recommendation of the Tamil Nadu Backward Classes Commission.