Amitha Muraleedharan
Justice Devan Ramchandran of the Kerala High Court heard a transwoman’s petition questioning Section 6 of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) Act, 1948.
The petition questions the provision which exclusively authorizes ‘males’ or ‘females’ to enroll as cadets with National Cadet Corps.
Dayasindhu Shreehari, counsel for the central government who appeared for NCC, argued that denying enrollment to the petitioner under the NCC Act, “was not discrimination.”
The court asserted that “Certainly there are three genders, male, female, and transgender”, criticized the defendant counsel, “The world has progressed, you cannot remain in the 19th Century.”
The court emphatically stated that the petitioner decided to be a woman and go through surgery. Nobody can stop her admission to NCC as a woman.
The counsel for NCC stated that the petitioner had admitted herself as a transgender to her University and described her as a transgender woman throughout the pleading.
The Court further asserted the Government of India ought to have amended the NCC Act to make provision for transgender persons.
The standing counsel sought time to submit the NCC’s counter-affidavit while stating that the NCC is not excluding anyone from the enrollment process.
Advocates Raghul Sudheesh, Lakshmi J, Glaxon KJ, and Sanish Sasi Raj appeared for the petitioner.
The petitioner is a student of the University College, Thiruvananthapuram, who went through two sex reassignment surgeries and obtained a transgender identity card under the Kerala government’s Transgender Policy, 2015.
The petitioner questioned her exclusion from the NCC enrollment process as unlawful and argued that section 6 of the NCC ACT is unconstitutional.
She also requested the court’s intervention to allow her to be a part of the enrollment process as interim relief.
The court postponed the matter for ten days.