On Friday, the Maharashtra government told the Bombay High Court that it will provide a third gender option apart from male and female in online applications for police constable recruitment. It also told the court that it would frame rules for transgender candidates within three months.
The court directed the state to frame the rules as per the Central Government’s Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2020, and complete the physical tests of all candidates except transgender candidates by February 28, 2023.
Physical examination of transgender candidates will be done in the last fortnight, said the court. Till the rules are framed and the physical tests are conducted, the state shall not proceed with the written tests for all candidates, the court stated in its order.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Dutta and Justice Abhay Ahuja was hearing the state’s plea against the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal’s (MAT) directive to include transgender persons in the recruitment of all posts in the Home Department.
MAT had also directed the state to fix criteria for physical standards and tests for transgender candidates while dealing with applications filed by two transgender candidates applying for the post of a police constable.
The court had asked Advocate General (AG) Ashutosh Kumbhakoni to seek instructions from the state about measures to include transgender persons in the recruitment.
The AG proposed that there are three categories- police constable, police constable (driver), and Armed Police Constable (State Reserve Police Force) of which two posts from the category of police constable (driver) will be kept vacant for the two candidates who approached MAT. The government will identify appropriate posts for transgender, he added.
The court directed the state to allow transgender candidates to apply for either of the two categories, police constable and police constable (driver).
The court rejected the proposal of flipping the process to first conduct a written test for transgender candidates as it will also require amendment of the current rules.
“Let us not change the rules. As you say that justice has to be done according to the law. If you say written examination first, and viva voce later, or physical test later, that would amount to tinkering the rules by the court, that would be an infirmity,” CJ Datta said.
The court granted liberty to the transgender candidates who had approached MAT to submit their applications offline. The last date for all candidates to submit the online form is December 15, 2022.
